(Note: I have nothing against Jessica Lynch. I'm sure she is a fine young woman. I'm just irritated that she's being used as hero in the Bush administration's effort to glorify a war that increasingly appears was not justified on the grounds mentioned by President Bush. I wrote this a few months back, but never sent it. Now seems like the right time.)

Saving Private Lynch
© David Volk

More than a month after it was reported that the daring raid on an Iraqi hospital to save Jessica Lynch may not have been so daring after all, the administration finally came up with its response.

Just to catch you up, in case you haven't heard, the people who treated Jessica Lynch said she was given orange juice, she was fed better than most of the patients in the hospital and she was generally treated like a VIP before special forces staged a late night raid to save her from a fate worse than..what? Club Med? The Four Seasons? The life of an emperor in China's Forbidden City?

Now that people are finally getting interested in the story, the Bush administration is claiming they had to go in like.well.G-men because the hospital was a Baath Party and Republican Guard Stronghold, they didn't know Saddam's loyalists had fled the hospital six hours before and, as a result, she was in GRAVE DANGER.

Yep, nurses at my beck and call, around the clock care, and VIP treatment

The rest of us should only be in so much danger. Booking a room at Club Med,

David Volk