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TO THE ARMY, for its handling of the case of Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside, the reservist who led a unit of medics in Iraq and then suffered a mental breakdown, possibly triggered by the stresses of war, during which she waved a gun at a psychiatric nurse on her unit, fired into the ceiling, then shut herself in a room and shot herself in the stomach.

Whiteside, whose story was detailed in The Washington Post, was taken to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where she was diagnosed with severe mental disorder. Yet the Army offered her only the chance to resign under a status that would have left her without the veterans’ medical benefits she will need as the result of her severe injuries. The Army also filed criminal charges against her for endangering the life of another soldier and for attempting suicide.

In December, the investigating officer conducting a preliminary hearing recommended that the charges be dismissed, saying it was the only moral course. Army leaders from top to bottom must all recognize the critical importance of protecting — and, where necessary, healing — the mental health of its war-stressed soldiers.