Obama pledges more aid for trauma-syndrome troops

The changes that veteran affairs secretary Eric Shinseki will announce today fulfil "a solemn responsibility to provide our veterans and wounded warriors with the care and benefits they've earned when they come home," Mr Obama said in his weekly radio and online address yesterday.

The new rules will apply not only to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but also those who served in previous conflicts.

No longer will veterans have to prove what caused their illness. Instead, they would have to show that the conditions surrounding the time and place of their service could have contributed to their illness.

"I don't think our troops on the battlefield should have to take notes to keep for a claims application," the president said. "And I've met enough veterans to know that you don't have to engage in a firefight to endure the trauma of war."

Veterans' advocates and some politicians have argued that it could sometimes be impossible for veterans to find records of a firefight or bomb blast.

They have also argued that the old rules ignored other causes of post-traumatic stress disorder, (PTSD), such as fearing a traumatic event even if it does not occur. That could discriminate against female troops banned from serving on front lines and other service members who do not experience combat directly.

"This is a long overdue step," Mr Obama said. "It's a step that proves America will always be here for our veterans, just as they've been there for us. We won't let them down."

A study last year by the RAND Corporation think-tank estimated that nearly 20 per cent of returning veterans, or 300,000, had symptoms of PTSD or major depression.