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Because of the war in Iraq, Edgar Dewayne Shiver lost his home, his car, his fiancee, his short-term memory and the hearing in his right ear.

A 44-year-old retired staff sergeant with the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment of the Tennessee National Guard, Mr. Shiver is unable to work since suffering a traumatic brain injury in 2005 — the result of the kind of improvised explosive device blast that has become ubiquitous during one of the longest conflicts in United States history.

Local veterans and military families weigh in on Operation Iraqi Freedom, which after five years has cost the United States $10.3 billion a month and as of March 15 has led to the deaths of 3,982 military personnel, including 82 from Tennessee.

Mr. Shiver relies mostly on television, books and his Shih Tzu, Daisy, to keep him occupied between visits from his 13-year-old daughter, Jenna, and the frightening flashbacks he says he suffers regularly at his Ringgold, Ga., apartment.

And yet, looking back five years after the conflict began, the third-generation military man — whose 17-year-old son, Joshua Blake, is three weeks into his own military training — said he would do it all over again.

“I’d go back tomorrow,” Mr. Shiver said without hesitation. “It’s my honor. It’s my duty... I believe in what we’re doing over there, regardless of what the public says. There are people there because they want to do the right thing.”

COST OF CONFLICT

Five years after Operation Iraqi Freedom was launched to locate alleged weapons of mass destruction, Iraq President Saddam Hussein has been captured and executed, but no evidence of any such weapons has been found.

The U.S. is spending $10.3 billion per month on Iraq operations, according to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. U.S. Department of Defense statistics show that, as of March 15, the war had led to the deaths of 3,982 military personnel, including 82 from Tennessee.

President George W. Bush on Wednesday defended the war, saying “successes we are seeing in Iraq are undeniable.”

Mr. Bush also said that as of Wednesday the death toll had risen to 3,988.

The president’s administration considers the war part of the Global War on Terror launched in Afghanistan after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, “but many Democrats don’t accept that connection,” said Dr. Thomas Alan Schwartz, professor of history at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

In any event, Dr. Schwartz said, the war in Iraq stands out for its longevity.

“The only parallel we have is Vietnam, and I don’t think it’s a happy parallel,” he said.

However, unlike during the Vietnam War, Dr. Schwartz noted, opposition to the current war in Iraq is focused more on the president and his administration than the U.S. military.

Jennifer Coleman, a 26-year-old Soddy-Daisy resident whose fiancé is deployed, supports the war effort.

Critics of the war “don’t understand the big picture,” she said. “They don’t see or understand how much effort (the troops) put in there. ... They do all kinds of good things that we don’t get to hear about.”

Terry Stulce, a spokesman for the Chattanoooga-based group United for Democracy and Justice, has helped organize its fifth annual war protest march in Chattanooga. But the protest also is a way to honor those who have suffered from the war, including Iraqi citizens and fallen military personnel, he said.

“Enough’s enough,” Mr. Stulce said, explaining that he hopes a change in public opinion ultimately will force politicians to take notice. “We’ve become the majority.”

Dorothy Jones of Fayetteville, Tenn., says she, too, opposes the war. But she never would oppose the efforts of her son, 32-year-old Spc. Calvin Jones, who has been working as a medic at Camp Bucca, Iraq, since late last summer with the Chattanooga-based 1/181st Field Artillery Battalion of the Tennessee National Guard.

“I’m extremely proud of him and everything he’s doing over there,” she said.

Mrs. Jones said she worries about the “ugly stuff” she is sure her son is seeing in the Middle East, and she worries it will weigh him down even after he returns.

But he simply “says it’s better left un-talked about,” according to Mrs. Jones, who comforts herself by counting down the days until his return and slipping on his old T-shirts to feel close to him again.

There is a good chance that Mrs. Jones’ son, and many others who have been deployed — and redeployed — during the lengthy conflict will return in one piece, according to Dr. Schwartz, who noted that the conflict’s casualty rate is relatively low “by American standards.”

Instead, he said, many military personnel will come back injured, having been saved by technology not available in the past.

“This will be a challenge in our own time,” he said. “It’s one of the ways we’ll be paying for this war for many generations.”

“SIGNATURE” INJURY

As a traumatic brain injury patient, Mr. Shiver is among those suffering from what experts say has become the “signature” injury of the Iraq war.

More than 50 percent of injuries sustained in combat are the result of explosive munitions, and preliminary statistics show that about 60 percent of those blast victims suffer from some type of head injury, according to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center.

One of the most frightening things about a traumatic brain injury is that the full extent of its damage may never be known, because in its mildest form it can go undetected and cause lingering results, said Regena Young, clinical coordinator of the traumatic brain injury unit at Siskin Hospital for Physical Rehabilitation in Chattanooga.

“You don’t even have to be hit in the head” to suffer such an injury, Ms. Young said.

“Anytime you have a concussion wave, such as from a bomb, it can cause concussive injury,” she said. “You can suffer from headaches, mild personality changes, problems with balance or dizziness, and lots of times, it might not even be attributed to a head injury.”

Mr. Shiver says he is managing fine with his injury — with the help of weekly counseling and a Palm Pilot. He is a different person, he says, but a better one.

After serving in combat, he said, “you find some things in yourself you never knew you had.”

That’s a legacy that started with his grandfather and will continue as his son prepares for the possibility that he might be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan himself, he said.

Ms. Coleman had trouble saying good-bye to her 24-year-old fiancé, U.S. Marine Sgt. Richard Douglas, before his second deployment to Iraq with the Chattanooga-based “Mike Battery.”

He recently left for California where his unit is awaiting transport to the Middle East. But she got to keep a part of him with her.

The couple’s 4-month-old daughter, Abigail, is a gift and a daily reminder of what her father is fighting for, according to Ms. Coleman.

Ms. Coleman plans to keep in close contact with Sgt. Douglas through e-mail and phone calls, and she keeps a video message from him saved on her wireless phone so Abigail can hear his voice on a regular basis, too.

“I’m at peace with it,” she said of the long absence, which will be filled with plenty of prayer and spiritual reflection. “I know it’s out of my hands.”

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