Though I see that the body/mind issue has already been raised in responses, I’m really interested in how Gibson addresses this, and I think I can take a sufficiently original tack that my response will further the discussion.

Robert Heinlein is not overly concerned with subtlety. Perhaps fearful of some particularly dense reader missing his unmitigated support of the military, big government and capital punishment, Heinlein places only the thinnest of sci-fi veils over his long-winded political monologues. This does not make it a bad read – the plot is still compelling – but when I reach the scenes of History and Moral Philosophy classes, I do want to throw something at him, as roseblack says. This future world in which Johnny Rico operates has indeed been radically altered.

Because in Hollywood-speak, 'a horrible movie' is called a 'cult favorite' and sequels rule the universe, Sony Pictures in 2004 put out 'Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation', a 'rapid-fire sequel to the cult favorite, [in which] the Federation's best Mobile Infantry unit goes back into action against the Bug horde.' A straight-to-DVD masterpiece!
And, according to imdb, they're making a THIRD one starring the original Johnny. Really? Really?

The bad photoshopped poster is worth a visit.
http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/starshiptroopers2heroofthefederati...

I am currently 4 minutes and 15 seconds into the movie Starship troopers, and I am absolutely sure that is has the worst opening sequence I have ever witnessed. Perhaps it is because I just recently saw Cloverfield, which went a little too far down the documentary/shaky-cam road, but the little sequence 'on the battlefield' was RIDICULOUS. Let's even put aside the fact that a trained soldier continues to talk to the camera even though a Bug has (not sneakily at all) come around the corner and is about to snatch the soldier up in his semi-CGI, animatronic-looking maw.