How Dogs Help Veterans Cope with PTSD from TIME Video on Vimeo.

Struggling with post-traumatic stress, veteran David Sharpe says he found a dog at a shelter that saved his life. Now, with a group called P2V, he pairs other vets with rescued pets.

Experts are reshaping the way Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is viewed, in part because a growing number of US soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have sought treatment for it.

New research has established a link between PTSD and physical damage to the brain. In fact, the Canadian military has started calling it an "injury", instead of a disorder.

Al Jazeera's Tom Ackerman reports from Washington, DC.

America has been at war for over a decade now, with millions of soldiers having seen death and dying up close in Afghanistan and Iraq. But most Americans, watching comfortably on their TVs and computers, witness mostly to statistics, stump speeches, and “expert” rhetoric, don’t get what’s really going on there. Bill talks to Karl Marlantes — a highly-decorated Vietnam veteran, Rhodes Scholar, author, and PTSD survivor — about what we on the insulated outside need to understand about the minds and hearts of our modern warriors. Marlantes shares with Bill intimate stories about how his battlefield experiences both shaped and nearly destroyed him, even after returning to civilian life.

“’Thou shalt not kill’ is a tenet you just do not violate, and so all your young life, that’s drilled into your head. And then suddenly, you’re 18 or 19 and they’re saying, ‘Go get ‘em and kill for your country.’ And then you come back and it’s like, ‘Well, thou shalt not kill’ again. Believe me, that’s a difficult thing to deal with,” Marlantes tells Bill. “You take a young man and put him in the role of God, where he is asked to take a life — that’s something no 19-year-old is able to handle.”

Full transcript after the jump...

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In Chicago on Sunday, nearly 50 U.S. military veterans at an anti-NATO rally in Chicago threw their service medals into the street, an action they said symbolized their rejection of the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They said they're proud of the men and women with whom they served, but not of missions they were asked to perform.

Marine Vet, Scott Olsen who was severely injured when he was hit in the head with a tear gas canister during an Occupy Oakland event in 2011 drew loud cheers from the crowd as he stepped up to speak and throw away his medals.

The "NoNATO" protesters said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are based on lies and failed policies, and that the wars have cost hundreds of thousands of lives and consumed trillions of dollars which could have been spent on schools, clinics and social programs at home.

Some are calling for the dissolution of NATO, the 63-year-old military alliance.

"We see that the global war on terrorism is a failed policy and we don't want to be part of that mistake anymore," Aaron Hughes, who served in Iraq in 2003, said prior to the event.

Hughes said he especially wants to call attention to the medical needs of American servicemen and women who are suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or are the victims of sexual assault. He said that too many are not having their needs addressed and instead are often being returned to combat.

"That's because of the generals and their failed policies, and not because of the service members. That's why we're going to march on NATO, and that's what this is really about. It's about them acknowledging that they made a mistake," he said.