I rather was amused by the "poor starving Americans" line.
Al's reading was generally good, previously-mentioned concerns aside.
I don't know that I necessarily consider this sci-fi because I don't know where history diverged. But again, that discussion can be had by those more knowledgeable than I.
My second problem with the story was its length -- I counted at least three good places where it could have ended, but didn't.
My first problem with the story was that it felt very preachy, very "hey, in the future all this bad shit is going to happen because America is fighting an unwarranted war". I realize this is a valid point of view to some people (which may or may not include me), but I felt it there was too much of it, and the "okay, it's going to end... no, it's going to end NOW... no, it's going to end... NOW... no..." that I kept experiencing lent a lot to it. I think if the story had been shorter I could have handled that aspect a little better. I've written my share of near-future stories, but I tend to avoid war stories because they get preachy in the end. I think it can be very difficult to write a non-preachy war story.
Also, I find it interesting -- and I think this might be fodder for its own thread -- that very little of the contemporary American SF that I've read comes from the POV that "the war is good, and if we didn't fight the war, here's what would happen". Perhaps that's just because many contemporary American SF writers and editors have beliefs that fall in line with "the war is bad/unjust", or they know that if their beliefs don't fall into line with that, they have to keep it hidden. This list also may or may not include me.
I really liked the talk show description -- how the Narrator explained his livelihood, the way talk shows were uber-Patriotic, etc etc. I think that could have been the frame for the whole story, if the author had wanted to tell it differently (or shorter). And I'm both intrigued and uncomfortable at the kind of research the author must have had to do to make the Narrator's handlessness more realistic. Amputation is, I think, one of the most uncomfortable topics in both fiction and real-life. Our eyes tend to be drawn to the amputee's missing part more than the fact that s/he is still a human being. Maybe she did it by reading a lot, or maybe she went to a V.A. hospital to talk to soldiers who were amputees, or maybe she talked to doctors who specialize in treating the specific issues people must deal with when they go through an amputation. From the POV of someone who's never had to deal with it, she pulled off the horror and bleakness of it admirably, and I have much respect for that.
I can't give it a good/bad/meh rating, unfortunately. It had parts of all three. As a whole I didn't like it, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad story. It just wasn't a good story for me.