4/1     Is it possible that Iraqi RELEASE Jessica Lynch instead of
        what US said that she was being rescued?  It doesn't make
        any sense that she was the only one who was rescued.
        \_ no, this is ridiculous.  are you the founder of the local chapter
           of the "hate america first society"?  much better to trust in the
           goodness of saddam and his militia fanatics than the us military
           rescuing one of their own?  nuts.  where do you get this crap from?
        \_ and it makes sense that Iraq released her?
        \_ Sure it does.  First of all, she was wounded badly, possibly
           necessitating treatment that lightly wounded or uninjured POW's
           wouldn't need.  Second of all, the Iraqi's are under no obligation
           to handle all of their POW's identically.  I think if you'll look
           into this, you'll find that it's actually quite common for POW's
           to be split up upon capture -- I can think of a variety of reasons
           why -- morale, safety, secuity, secrecy, etc.             -mice
           \- What do you think about the US releasing a list of targets
              in Baghdad 12 hrs before it bombs them?  Then civilians can
              get the hell out of the neighborhood. If SADDAM uses this info
              to put hostages in the bldg, ostensibly this will be detected
              and the US can skip bombing those on that day and then go back
              to not announcing and say "see, saddam->bad". Is there any
              downside to this? ok tnx.
              \_ i assume this is hypothetical and we're not really releasing
                 target lists.  i think it's a terrible idea.  you don't win
                 wars playing patty cake.  this isn't a playground scuffle.
                 \- yes but there is a PR war too. Dropping leaflets doesnt
                    win the war, but it might help on the margin. --psb
                 the harder and faster and heavier they're hit now, the more
                 lives will get saved in the long run by having it end sooner.
              \_ Well, I'd think that it would be pretty difficult to
                 reliably identify POW's.  If we could, then yeah, we'd very
                 likely eschew bombing the building(s) housing them -- but you
                 can make a pretty safe bet that there would be Special
                 Operations guys moving in with little delay: Special Forces/
                 Delta, SEALs, etc.  Of course, I'm a little more cynical.  I
                 suspect that motives of the 12 hour notice are less to do
                 with humanitarian reasons and more to do with strategic/
                 political thinking.  The targets that we're likely giving
                 warning on aren't 'targets of opportunity', so they're not
                 likely to move in 12 hours -- so in that respect the warning
                 makes little difference.  If there's civillians there, and
                 US munitions kill them -- we can safely blame Saddam and his
                 regime; if there aren't any then we still win the moral
                 high ground with our humanitarianism.  Of course, I wasn't
                 aware of the 12 hours notice thing, so I'm basically talking
                 out my ass, and likely completely wrong.            -mice
        \_ do you find Jessica Lynch cute?
           \_ Actually...yes.       -mice
              \_ what's a nice lady like that doing in the military?
                 \_ how do you know she's nice?  why can't nice girls join
                    the military?  btw, she happens to be the daughter of a
                    coworker of mine.
                 \_ heh   Likely meeting many fine, healthy, -available- young
                    men.
                    \_ Why would a fine young woman like this want to do that
                       when she could go to Cal and join CSUA instead?
                       \_ Yeah and then she could learn about the latest distro
                          and all the kewlest bike rides and we could show her
                          all the kewl stuff she can do in pine!  sweet!
                       \_ You must have missed the 'fine' and 'healthy'
                          words in that sentence.
                          \_ you think fine and healthy young women would
                             prefer to be abused and raped in service
        \_ But where is Navajo Lori, Jessica's roommate, and my friend's
           cousin?
                             acadamies?
                             \_ gee i hope so. i hate doing the ugly sick ones.
        \_ Was she sexually assaulted by the Iraqi soldiers in any way?
        \_ But where is Navajo Lori, Jessica's roommate?  Still MIA.