NEW YORK -- Good for her. U.S. Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, finally given a chance on TV to have her say, punctured the notion of heroism concocted by the Hollywood publicist placed in Baghdad and the American mass media, ever the willing partner of their government when it comes to war.
Lynch is lucky, too. Unless something goes awfully wrong, she is unlikely to be punished for the fiction in whose creation she had no part. The core of the fiction was harmless, though some of the attendant allegations were repulsive.
Two Japanese soldiers during World War II who were turned into unlikely heroes in a set of two newspaper accounts weren't lucky. After Japan's defeat, they were tried, found guilty and executed.