US troops; limb amputations at TWICE rate of prior wars.

[LynnTheDem]

US troops injured in Iraq have required limb amputations at twice the rate of past wars, and as many as 20 percent have suffered head and neck injuries that may require a lifetime of care, according to new data giving the clearest picture yet of the severity of battlefield wounds.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/12/09/amputation_rate_for_us_troops_twice_that_of_past_wars/

MAYBE PLACING THE F*CKING ORDER for those uparmored humvees would be a GOOD THING TO DO HUH RUMSFAILED you sorry motherf*cking incompetant lying bastard.

[rockymountaindem]

1. I think a lot of those people would have died

if not for our brand new medical technology. I saw an old clip from the Kosovo operation where a surgeon said that they were much more confident in their capabilites and technology than they had been during Gulf War I. So when you hear "7 soldiers wounded", you could probably assume that at least one of them will either die as a result of their wounds, or would have died as a result of the same injuries even 10 years ago.

[AllegroRondo]

2. Dont jump to conclusions on this yet

I believe the higher rate of amputations may be due to the fact that in past wars, the soldiers would have just died from these wounds.

edit - looks like someone beat me to it

[One_Life_To_Give]

3. Body Armour?

Are the troops wearing better body armour than in previous wars? or are the emergency medic services worse?

[Florida_Geek]

7. yes the Body Armour? is much much better

but it does not protect the arms and legs and head.

[LSparkle]

4. And amputees aren't even necessarily being discharged!

Nope, just give them replacement prostheses and put them back into battle ... They're just going to keep on using the same people until -- what? -- they have no limbs left or are killed? And all of this so the sons of those chickenhawk members of Congress don't have to serve? Whatever happened to SHARED sacrifice?

[Bridget Burke]

5. Problems with unarmored vehicles were mentioned early on.

And amputation was often the result of attacks on those vehicles.

Sure, look on the sunny side. Many of these victims would have died in earlier wars.

[AirAmFan]

6. This is going to be Dubya's enduring legacy--thousands and thousands of

vets disabled and deformed so Junior could take the nation to "preemptive war" through pathological lying, try to outdo Daddy in Iraq, and win the favor of Bar Bush.

[Leilani]

8. Heard about this earlier today

Only 10% of wounded in Iraq will die...in Vietnam it was 25%

Because of medical intervention, more quickly administered, wounded rate goes up in each war since the revolution, but deaths go down.

In Vietnam it took an average of 6 weeks to get wounded stateside for surgery; now they can do it in 3 days.

And because of these changes, more people survive, but with very serious disabilities.