I remember when Jessica Lynch came home from Iraq, and everywhere, we heard the pounding of "Hero! Hero!" I never remember what, exactly, was heroic about Jessica. I know she was in a HumVee vehicle. I know she and her squad were attacked. I know a lot of people died. But I didn't know what exactly made her heroic.

Well, I know now.

She's telling the truth.

Lynch is indeed a lynch-pin. Her testimony about her experience in Iraq, along with others' comments condemning acts of the military, are the beginning of the end of this farce in Iraq.

When a woman-no more than a girl-can tell the American people that America deserves better than betrayal from the media and from the United States Armed Forces, I give her the vote of heroism. She is finally speaking on behalf of herself and her fallen comrades and most importantly, she is speaking to us, the people who somehow managed to vote in representatives and politicians that continue to continue to continue (thanks, Paul Simon) to foist this 'war' on our nation and the nation of Iraq. Her testimony may not be powerful enough to stop the war, nor may it move people the way it has moved me.

But it speaks of honesty, down to the simplest common denominator. A poor woman from West Virginia, who may have joined the Army because there was nowhere else to go, or may have joined the Army because she loved the stars and stripes, tells the ultimate truth, flying in the face of the Big Government's propaganda.

"The truth of war is not always easy. The truth is always more heroic than the hype," she said.

Thank You, Miss Lynch. For a moment, my faith in this beautiful country has been restored.