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WASHINGTON — Two high-profile US army personnel have accused the military of spreading outright lies and manipulating their stories for a hero-starved public to distract attention from the failures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I am still confused why they chose to lie and make me a legend," Jessica Lynch told a Congress session on April 24, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Lynch, 23, was injured by a rocket-propelled grenade Nasiriyah, Iraq, in 2003. 11 fellow soldiers were killed in the attack.
At the time, the US army claimed Lynch, a driver in an ambushed convoy, fought heroically until she was taken by Iraqi forces and then rescued from hospital by US troops.
Lynch said the US army sought to portray her as the "plucky little girl-Rambo" who fought to her last bullet.
"It was not true," she told Congress. She said she did not fire a shot and was partially paralyzed from her injuries and Iraqi doctors had cared for her.
She added that her removal from the hospital was coordinated with the Iraqis themselves.
"The bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals for heroes, and they don’t need to be told elaborate lies."
Specialist Kevin Tillman also accused the US military of lying about his brother’s death in Afghanistan three years ago.
The army said Pat Tillman, a football star, was killed while fighting valiantly but several weeks later, it came out he died from multiple bullet wounds to the head fired from 35 yards away by a fellow ranger.
"It was utter fiction," Kevin said.
He asserted that in the hours immediately after Pat’s death crucial evidence was destroyed -- including Pat’s uniform, equipment and notebook
"The autopsy was not done according to regulation and the field hospital report was falsified," said the grieved brother.
He insisted that a political decision was reached to create a "false narrative" of his brother’s death in part to distract from the abuses by US guards at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
An army ranger who was with Pat when he was killed told the Congress panel that he was ordered by their battalion commander to conceal the facts from Pat’s family.
Last month, the Pentagon called for action against a three-star general and eight other officers for their handling of the episode.
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