Fixing the symptom...

I'm sure some defense contractor would be happy to overcharge for armored sleeves and legs. It seems that we're not facing the type of enemies that we had planned on, and new equipment might be in order. But then, we've never really fought an urban war before.

The biggest flaw in most military strategy is "fighting the last war." Especially now that Henry Kissinger is attempting to re-fight Vietnam in Iraq. I hope they remember to turn off the lights in Baghdad when the last chopper leaves.

So let's get some arm and leg armor for the troops, and while we're at I want a god damned Gundam suit!

...the amputation rate in the Iraq conflict is just 20 percent compared with 76 percent during the Vietnam War, translating into thousands of saved limbs.

Faster treatment and evacuation as well as new plastic surgery techniques "have allowed us to care for injuries that in previous wars would have resulted in the death of the patient or an amputation in the field," said [the surgeon], who has just retired from the Navy.

According to the Pentagon, 20,687 in the U.S. military have been wounded in Iraq as of Oct. 6, with 9,352 injured too seriously to quickly return to duty.

Link

P.S. The bad news is that you've only got a 45.2% chance of going home if you get shot up. Look for the C-Leg battalion to be reporting for duty soon. Seems like I've seen this movie before before.