Biden's son headed to Iraq in 2008

Joins McCain and Hunter as candidates with deployed children at war

	Presidential candidate, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., campaigning at the Iowa State Fair, says he doesn't want his son going to Iraq in 2008, but also doesn't want his grandchildren going back in 15 years.
Scott Olson / Getty Images

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updated 8:12 a.m. ET Aug. 17, 2007

WASHINGTON - The son of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden is preparing for deployment to Iraq next year.

Capt. Beau Biden, a Judge Advocate General in the Delaware National Guard and the state's attorney general, is part of the 261st Signal Brigade that has been told to prepare for duty in Iraq in 2008. They have not been given a date of deployment yet.

"I don't want him going," Biden, D-Del., said from the campaign trail Wednesday, according to a report on Radio Iowa. "But I tell you what, I don't want my grandson or my granddaughters going back in 15 years and so how we leave makes a big difference."

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Biden criticized Democratic rivals such as Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama who have voted against Iraq funding bills to try to pressure President Bush to end the war.

"There's no political point worth my son's life," Biden said, according to Radio Iowa. "There's no political point worth anybody's life out there. None."
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Lt. Col. Len Gratteri, spokesman for the Delaware National Guard, said Beau Biden is not being treated differently because of his office or because his father is running to be commander in chief.

"He's a deployable asset just like any other soldier in that unit," Gratteri said.

Two other presidential candidates, Republicans John McCain and Duncan Hunter, have sons who've been in military units deployed to Iraq.

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