Hell, if it weren’t for the fact that that the movie opens in 2016, you could make an equally valid argument that the 35-year-old marine colonel is actually the guy who gets twisted at the waist in the Justin Hammer video that Tony Stark shows during the congressional hearing in Iron Man 2.
The third area up for examination is the “experimental armor” that seemingly caused the spinal injury.
This is surely the most important element that makes people think that Dr. Strange is turning down surgery on War Machine, but it’s evidence of a narrow view of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to this point.
It was all the way back in 2010 that we learned countries the world over were trying to develop their own versions of Iron Man armor, and this surgery that Strange turns down could be on any one of the many soldiers who have been part of copycat experimentation over the years.