A new rule broadens the definition of post-traumatic stress disorder, allowing non-combat veterans to receive disability benefits for being traumatized by events they did not actually experience.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is now paying compensation for post-traumatic stress disordera newround of veterans--those in their 50s and 60s who fought in Vietnam.

Veterans diagnosed with major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder,or any other anxiety disorder stemming from military activity need to be treated as well as compensated.

The right kind of mental health treatment for returning veterans is vital.

Few veterans are likely to endure a subsequent lifetime of chronic anguish or dysfunction of the kind that requires long-term disability entitlement.

Over the last hundred years, psychiatry has taken very different perspectives on war stress.

As the anniversary of Sept. 11 looms we will be barraged with warnings of a resurgence of angst, butour natural resilience will serve us once again.

The Iraqi people have surely suffered terribly, but whether the war has rendered many of them in need of therapy is another matter entirely.