Hollywood writers could not have imagined a more gripping and rousing story than that of the Iraqi capture of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch. The dramatic Special Operations rescue caught on videotape could have been yanked from the most ambitious military screenwriter, in the fashion of successes such as “”Black Hawk Down”” and “”Saving Private Ryan.””

Lynch’s rescue will go down as one of the most stunning pieces of news management yet conceived. Of course, the docudrama was only a matter of time, and it’s not hard to see why. NBC’s airing of “”Saving Jessica Lynch”” drew 14.9 million viewers, according to preliminary figures issued by Nielsen Media Research.

Lynch became an icon of the war. An all-American heroine, the story of her capture by the Iraqi military and her rescue by U.S. special forces became one of the great patriotic moments of the War on Terrorism. And if timing is everything, then it certainly couldn’t have happened at a more crucial moment, when talk was of bogged-down coalition forces and people were skeptical of a victory too slow in coming.

In a way, it was what everyone needed to see. You have a beautiful, all-American soldier doing her part in a battle that must be noble if it’s named “”Operation Iraqi Freedom.”” She’s fighting the forces of tyranny and standing up for her country, overcoming horrific ordeals in the name of liberty. Now fade out her profile wih a waving American flag and wait for the ratings to soar and the royalties to collect.

Maybe there’s nothing wrong with taking an ordeal and marketing it in the name of increasing patriotism. Maybe there’s nothing wrong in exploiting the story of a young woman who has already become the poster child for the American soldier. But this story is becoming less about an individual made into a message and more about the overall image that the military wants to project on the past.

In creating the media circus surrounding the Iraqi war as a whole, the strategy was to concentrate on the visuals and to get a broad message out. Details ‹ when helpful ‹ followed behind. The key was to ensure the right television footage. The embedded reporters could do some of that. On other missions, the military used their own cameras, editing the film themselves and presenting it to broadcasters as ready-to-go packages.

It’s a dangerous trend, marketing the military. There’s a balance in keeping the public informed and keeping it on your side. The heart-wrenching story of Lynch was the best of both worlds. It was heroism that only the hardest heart could label as jingoist propaganda.

None of this is to say that Lynch isn’t a heroine, that her actions weren’t admirable or that she doesn’t deserve praise. But clearly this is an issue that surpasses the indvidual.

With a nation so willing to be caught up in the dramatized version of a heroine’s story, other things are also dramatized. Certainly, details will be disputed and facts questioned. But who’s questioning whether this story should have ever made the evening time slot?

As moving as this story is, it’s not helping anyone understand the struggle to rebuild Iraq, or even how that struggle came to be. It’s just one in a line of distractions that keep people from forming accurate opinions about intervention in Iraq. Instead of focusing on a single story, attention should be shifted to actual involvement.

More than anything, the success of “”Saving Jessica Lynch”” shows just how much the American public is willing to be distracted.