THAT LYNCH BRONZE STAR

Reader Alex emails about my neglecting to discuss how Pvt. Jessica "You guys called in advance? How sweet!" Lynch was recently awarded with the Bronze Star, for "meritorious combat service":

This amazes me since she has no recollection of the ambush and the people around her never mentioned her involved in any "meritorious" combat. Not that i don't think she deserves her other medals, but to many (at least as i've read in other forums), this is just another part of the propoganda.

Good points aplenty here. According to the accepted criteria for being awarded such an honor,

The Bronze Star Medal is awarded to any person who, while serving in any capacity in or with the Army of the United States after 6 December 1941, distinguished himself or herself by heroic or meritorious achievement or service, not involving participation in aerial flight, in connection with military operations against an armed enemy; or while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party.

...I'm not exactly sure where she qualifies, unless laying in a military-free Iraqi hospital bed, waiting for American soldiers to pick her up (after having called ahead) counts. The other medals? Both make some measure of sense.

(And besides, some would argue, given that we became an aggressor state the moment the first "shock and awe" bomb rained down on Baghdad, would she and others be automatically disqualified because we were a "belligerent party"? Eh...)