Although some may find a problem with this because the percentage of Vietnam vets diagnosed with a stress disorder like PTSD has 'officially' dropped from 30.9% to 18.7%, that figure still represents a lot of people. Others agree.

The New York Times:

Dr. Matthew J. Friedman, executive director of the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for the Department of Veterans Affairs, said the new study should establish beyond question that post-traumatic stress disorder is both a common and legitimate diagnosis in returning soldiers. "We can quibble about the numbers," he said, "but the point is that it's a lot of people," and the potential demand on services is substantial. ...

The most important figure in the study, most agreed, was the rate of chronic mental suffering [which clocked in at 9.1% in the study]. "War is not healthy for children, and what this shows is how unhealthy it is, and who has to pay for the lifelong consequences of that," said Michael Gaffney, a lawyer in Washington who served in an artillery unit in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969.

"And the meat grinder is still operating, in Iraq."

What are the worries revolving around the study?

The findings come at a time of simmering debate over the emotional effects of service in Iraq which, with its lack of a conventional front echoes the Vietnam experience more than it does other wars. Politicians have clashed over the Department of Veterans Affairs' budget, including its $3 billion annual bill for mental health, in part because of a suspicion that the estimated rates of post-traumatic stress, based on Vietnam veterans, were too high. Last year, the department commissioned a review of combat stress disability claims for evidence of exaggeration.

The debate has angered some trauma researchers, and infuriated veterans' groups who say that as it is, mental health services too often fall short.

Ah, Fox News:

In a rational world devoid of politics, Congress might reasonably restrict benefits to the small minority of veterans whose PTSD claims can be verified against their combat experiences. But in our very different -- sometimes surreal -- world, powerful veterans' lobbies pressure Congress to increase benefits with few if any restrictions, regardless of the relevant facts and science. Not many politicians are willing to be seen as saying "no" to veterans.

This has happened before in the cases of Vietnam, Cold War-era and Gulf War vets making scientifically questionable claims of health effects caused by Agent Orange, nuclear weapons testing, and depleted uranium weapons, respectively. In those cases, the process of science was misused and abused in order to justify broad health care benefits.

Oh. oh. I hope testvet doesn't see this. But then they say this in the very next paragraphs:

One possible solution is simply for Congress to provide that certain types of military service -- such as any service in theaters of combat, not just actual combat experience, and other forms of hazardous duty -- automatically qualify veterans for lifetime health benefits.

That way, scientific research involving combat veterans will be less politicized and results will be less likely to have been pre-determined and/or skewed by the hidden and not-so-hidden agendas of researchers and their funders.

More coverage:

• Fewer Vietnam Vets Are Found to Have Stress Disorder - Washington Post
  
• Study likens veterans of Vietnam to those in Iraq  - The Guardian
  
• Fewer Vietnam Vets Suffer From PTSD - CBS News