Five hundred forty-five U.S. servicemen and women have died in Iraq since Operation Iraqi Freedom began. Some of those deaths, 167 to be exact, are classified as "non-hostile related." The question some people are asking is how many of those deaths were suicides?
The Pentagon sent a team to investigate but it has not released its findings. The official number of military suicides in Iraq is set at 22; but some veteran advocacy groups charge that the number is much higher and doesn't include the soldiers who take their lives after returning home. Longer deployments and a controversial war they say, can lead to increased anxiety and depression. But can it also lead to suicide? That's what some families and veteran advocates want to know.
