Iraq Casts Shadow on Ohio, Texas Votes

[Terri]

By LIZ SIDOTI
Associated Press
March 4, 2008

McCONNELSVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- Two big states holding presidential primaries Tuesday have something more tragic in common -- high numbers of military casualties in Iraq.

Combined, Ohio and Texas have sustained roughly one-eighth of all U.S. troop deaths in a war that's certain to shape the general election as candidates with two vastly different approaches -- stay or go -- compete for votes in communities that have been personally touched by the conflict that began with a U.S.-led invasion five years ago this month.

''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.

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