Reply #12: Umm, the wounded number would naturally be higher these days...

[crimsonblue]

Keep in mind that this ratio by no means that more troops are getting injured now compared to Vietnam, but rather that there are fewer deaths and more woudns can successfully be treated nowadays. Think of it this way: Medicine and battlefield trauma treatment has advanced steadily over the past few decades. Nowadays, we have (essentially) full fledged surgery centers in Iraq that can handle most of the injuries that come their way, or atleast stabilize the patient for transport to military bases elseware (such as the one in Germany, which has a 24 on call emergency surgery hospital).. Compare that to Vietnam, which was one big clusterfuck. As we get better at treating wounds, we will save more patients, and thus death rates will go down. If you take a look at the outcome of wounds in Vietnam versus the prognosis for current soldiers that are wounded, you will see that across the board, we are better equiped at treating people now. The medical quality in Iraq is one of the few things we don't have to try and hide. it is too bad, however, that many of the soldiers could get better treatment in Iraq than they could at Walter Reed.