WASHINGTON: The long and divisive war in Iraq is about to resonate with presidential candidates in a way not seen so far in the campaign: The sons of both vice presidential nominees are assigned to go there soon.
Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s eldest son, Track, private first class in the army, will perform security duties for his brigade’s top officers.
Beau Biden, son of Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden, a captain in the Delaware National Guard, will work as a military lawyer in Iraq. This is not a first. Family members of candidates and presidents have served in the military during wartime.
President Johnson’s son-in-law, Charles S. Robb, for instance, served as a Marine officer in Vietnam. Dwight Eisenhower was the last sitting president to have a son in a combat zone. John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower served during the Korean War. Theodore Roosevelt and his distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt each had four sons in the military during wartime.
And nearly a dozen young men and women — sons and daughters of members of Congress — have served in Iraq, although critics of US military policy long have argued that too few of the people making the decisions have had family members serving in war zones at the time.
When Republican presidential nominee John McCain selected Track’s mother to be his running mate, the Alaska governor’s family moved into the international spotlight.
She has made no secret that her 19-year-old son and his unit are leaving soon for duty in Iraq, repeating the news during her acceptance speech this week at the Republican political convention. Track, in a dress suit, was in the audience.
The presidential campaigns remain deeply divided over how to end the contentious war. The deployments of Track Palin and Beau Biden make the subject an intensely personal one, nevertheless, for their families.
“They’re going to take a very keen interest in how that war is run,” said retired Army Brig. Gen. David Grange. “It will affect their decision-making. No doubt about it.”
The dispatch of the candidate sons to Iraq also carries unavoidable political overtones. “Republicans always seem to imply that Democrats are somehow unpatriotic or want to be easy on the terrorists,” said James Pfiffner, a professor at George Mason University’s School of Public Policy. “But I think that Biden’s son demonstrates that you can disagree with a policy and still support doing your duty.”
