As the Iraq and Afghanistan wars drag on, we often concentrate on the number of fallen. The loss of more than 4,000 men and women, and the ripples of grief that spread outward, tugs at our hearts.

But there's another disturbing number to consider. About 800,000 veterans have returned home from the conflicts -- some injured, some emotionally jarred, but all with lives ahead. It is fitting that the nation thanks former military personnel by easing their return to civilian life with improvements to the G.I. Bill designed for wartime, not peacetime.

U.S. Sen. James Webb, D-Va., is currently pushing a measure to expand benefits originally established in 1944 when the nation saw not hundreds of thousands of returning veterans, but millions. Webb's version is called the "Post 9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act."

It would include active duty National Guard and activated reservists who have served at least three to 36 months of qualified active duty, beginning on or after Sept. 11, 2001. It would cover the cost of approved programs of education at public colleges and universities and also include a stipend to cover housing costs in the area. The benefits would be allowed in proportion to the length of time served. The bill also would give veterans up to 15 years after leaving active duty to use the benefits.

Webb has 57 Senate co-sponsors, including Washington Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell. There's a companion bill in the House, with 241 co-sponsors. A spokesman for 4th District Congressman Doc Hastings said that the House version of the bill was introduced less than a month ago and while he's not a co-sponsor right, his staff is looking at the bill.

Education programs for the brave men and women who have fought for us are another cost of war and should be properly funded. The cost is estimated at $2 billion a year, which Webb notes is less than the cost of one week of war in Iraq.

This is not only the right thing to do, it's something that would benefit the nation as a whole, as it did after World War II. Webb says that some 7.8 million veterans (out of 15 million veterans) used at least some of the benefits and each $1 spent generated about $7.

Our level of consciousness about the military has been raised during this ongoing fight against terrorism. We've been dismayed at the shameful conditions at Walter Reed Hospital, the nation's premier veterans hospital, at the deterioration of some of the aging barracks on bases around the country, and saddened at the struggles of returning veterans fighting for mental health care.

But we are hopeful that a united country will step forward to reward those who have given so much in the defense of their country with a chance at higher education. After all, as Webb notes, among the beneficiaries of G.I. Bill benefits of the past are three former presidents, a dozen U.S. senators, three Supreme Court Justices and 14 Nobel Prize winners.

Some of the veterans who stand to benefit from Webb's proposal could very well join those ranks in the future, and continue to make us proud.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins, Bill Lee and Karen Troianello.