Victim Jessica Lynch

Army Private Jessica Lynch,19,taken captive during the early period of the U.S. war in Iraq, was both a victim of war and of the Bush administration PR machine.

The attractive, blonde West Virginian was in a March 2003 convoy that took a wrong turn, was separated from its larger unit outside Nasiriya and came under enemy fire. Nine of her fellow troops were killed and Lynch was badly wounded when her vehicle crashed. She was captured and taken to an Iraqi hospital, where she was attended by Iraqi doctors and nurses.

One of her doctors tried to arrange to transport her back to U.S. forces, but the vehicle in which she was riding was fired on by U.S. troops and had to turn back.

Knowing this, the military orchestrated a a "dramatic rescue" in which Special Forces broke into the hospital and removed her from the hospital where no one was armed.

The Army attempted to portray Pvt. Lynch as a sort of "Rambette." Reports indicated that she had been shot, stabbed and beaten, but that she had gone down fighting, firing until her ammo ran out. The purpose of this puffery was to fan public anger against Iraq so as to garner support for the coming occupation of that country.

Later, when she had partially recovered, Lynch herself criticized the administration for using her in this way. She indicated that her gun had jammed and that she had never fired a single shot. When captured, she said, she was on her knees praying, not fighting.

But the Army pressed on with its heroic portrayal of Lynch, paying scant attention to the members of her unit who actually did fight, presenting her the Bronze Star and giving her preferential treatment in her discharge and disability pension.

The U.S. public seemed determined that she should be an iconic hero one way or the other, and the news media, embedded, cowed and gauche, went right along with the charade, turning Lynch into bankrollable tabloid-style copy.

Lynch has continued to be honest about what actually happened, but is a living example of what should be PR's motto: "I seem, therefore I am."