"This strategy is succeeding," insists Republican Sen. John McCain, the likely GOP nominee who plans to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for the near future and who daily derides his Democratic rivals as defeatists.
Countering, Democratic presidential contenders Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton want the military out now and argue that the Republican would keep the country's armed forces entangled in Iraq indefinitely.
"We cannot wait to bring this war in Iraq to a close," argues Obama at every turn while Clinton frequently promises, "I would begin pulling the troops out in the first 60 days."
With such disparate positions, the Iraq war is certain to be a dominant topic, perhaps the defining issue, in the election as U.S. military deaths near 4,000 and the cost approaches $500 billion.
In Ohio and Texas, both party's contenders are courting a constituency that while war-weary also is deeply supportive of U.S. troops embroiled in a conflict that has intimately affected small towns like McConnelsville, Ohio, and military bastions around Fort Hood, Texas, as well as every place in between.
Ohio and Texas are among states with the largest numbers of military installations, deployments and war casualties. Ohio has lost 166 while Texas has mourned 366, the second highest death total behind California's 428.
There and elsewhere, people appear confounded by Iraq and struggle to see a way forward.
"We need to come home, but we need to get the job done," said Jan Slowter, working at her hair salon in this southeast Ohio town. An undecided voter, she said the war will affect her decision whether to stick with the Republicans as she has most of her life or choose a Democrat.
Some 1,200 miles away in Texas, retired Air Force veteran Robert Zahirniak says he has always thought the war was unnecessary and is supporting Clinton. He looks forward to new leadership in the White House. "Get out of there the first chance you get," said Zahirniak over his morning coffee at a bakery in his hometown of West, Texas, near Fort Hood.
In Republican primaries and caucuses so far, only 18 percent of voters rated Iraq their most important issue behind the economy and immigration. The number was higher - 28 percent - among those voting in Democratic primaries and caucuses but Iraq still trailed the economy.
Nevertheless, three in four people recently called the war an important issue to them personally.
That result, plus the gulf between the GOP and Democratic positions will combine with an expected debate in Washington this spring over an additional $100 billion for the war to give Iraq a high-profile role in the months to come.
McCain, a prisoner of war during Vietnam, has signaled Iraq will be a major part of his campaign while Obama and Clinton appeal to public sentiment that long ago soured on the mission.
In an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll in December, nearly half of all respondents said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports immediate withdrawal of troops, while just over a third said they would be less likely to do so. Only 15 percent said a candidate's war position would make no difference.
Backing for the war divides sharply along partisan lines.
A staggering 92 percent of Democrats in that poll said they opposed the war while 65 percent of Republicans favored it. Another result could bode ill for McCain: 77 percent of independents also said they oppose the war. That swing voting group is critical in the general election.
The change in public sentiment about the war over the last five years is evident in McConnelsville, Ohio.
As the war began in March 2003, this sleepy Appalachian town bid farewell to what was then the largest single deployment of Ohio Army National Guard troops in a single unit, some 433. Several thousand people jammed a send-off ceremony and crowds lined the streets as buses packed with soldiers rolled through town. Crisp new flags and bright yellow ribbons hung from nearly every tree and lamppost.
Iraq dominated chatter at the Blue Bell 50's Diner and people stood proudly behind the troops even as they questioned the need for the invasion.
Now, the town has mourned the loss of one of its own, killed when a roadside bomb exploded near his tank 36 hours before he was to come home. Fewer ribbons dot the main drag; those that remain have faded. Anti-war candidate Ron Paul's campaign signs hang from storefronts and in some yards.
In the diner, people are no less supportive of the troops. Only now, they question how to get out without making the past five years for naught. With Ohio's presidential primary looming, the talk among the Saturday midmorning crowd inevitably turned to the election and war politics.
"We should stay there for 100 years or more like McCain said and get all the terrorists out," said George Kenney, 67, a registered Democrat who plans to vote for the Republican largely because of the war. As for the Democrats, he said: "I don't think they'll have the guts to pull out."
Over a platter of sausage, gravy and biscuits, David Allen, 64, a registered Republican, said he's undecided on who to support but Iraq will be part of the equation. "Everyone knows we'd like to have everyone back," Allen said. "But we're there and it would be a travesty for everyone who has lost their lives to just pull out."
Beth Cole, 49, is a registered Republican who calls herself an independent. She says she will choose a candidate based in part on the war. "I personally don't think we should be over there. When you stop to think about the casualties, is it really worth it?" she said. "I don't know the answer yet."
At the Target store in Killeen, Texas, young men with Army haircuts stand out among the mostly female shoppers, many of whom say they too are soldiers or military wives when stopped to talk. They are personally familiar with the devastation in Iraq and worry that it will fall into chaos after U.S. forces leave. Whether that means the U.S. has a responsibility to stay elicits different answers.
"I don't know," says 25-year-old Maria Lopez, ordering a frozen drink for her little girl at Target's cafe. "All I know is that we are committed to serve and will follow whatever plan our commander in chief has for us."
