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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.

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.

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