Lawmaker Wants Lower Soldier Drinking Age/What say you, DU?

[CatWoman]

I don't have a problem with this, but I question Pettis' motives.

Didn't we freely give Indians alcohol in order to keep them docile, all the time robbing them blind?

MADISON, Wis. - One Wisconsin lawmaker figures if the U.S. military trusts 19-year-olds with a $10 million tank, then the state should trust them with a beer.

State Rep. Mark Pettis, a Republican who served in the Navy, is pushing a bill that would drop the drinking age to 19 for Wisconsin soldiers — but only if the federal government agrees it will not yank an estimated $50 million a year in highway aid.

A federal law ties federal highway dollars to compliance by the states with the required drinking age of 21.

"We're treating these young men and women as adults when they're at war. But we treat them like teenagers when they're here in the states," he said.

Pettis admits his proposal will be a tough sell unless Wisconsin gets the federal government's approval — or at least permission to start a pilot program to prove it will not cause more accidents or other problems opponents associate with a younger drinking age.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050531/ap_on_re_us/drinking_age_soldiers

[Left Is Write]

1. Who knows what his motives are, but he's got a point.

[neuvocat]

2. They do it anyway.

They might not be very open about it but they have enough 21+ buddies to go and get them the booze they want.

[CatWoman]

4. true. very true.

[flaminbats]

6. but...shouldn't under-aged drinking remain a federal crime?

time to throw us all in prison :dunce:

[applegrove]

3. People in Canada can drink when they are 19. Eighteen in some places.

I say let them have a beer. They need one!

[Canadian Socialist]

21. Applegrove! Think before you type!

We don't want young, impressionable Americans drinking Canadian beer for their first time! It will kill them! Which reminds me of an old Monty Python skit...

Why is drinking American beer like making love in a canoe?
.
.
.
.
.
because it's fucking close to water.
thank you, I'll be here all night. Don't forget to tip your server.

[applegrove]

29. That's funny! n/t

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. If their old enough to be sent to Iraq and die

Why can't they have a beer first?

[Hobo]

9. Yeah what he said.....eom

Hobo


:beer:

[CatWoman]

11. I happen to agree with you

did you not see my comment in the original post?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

14. Yes, I should have made my point more clear.

I understand your point of keeping them drunk and docile. It's an angle that could use some consideration. I'm not sure that's the reason he made the suggestion, or not. I could see it being a division if the younger people are excluded from being able to hang out with their older peers in a social setting, yet they are allowed to die beside them in battle.

If I'm not mistaken the reasoning behind raising the drinking age was that young people weren't responsible enough until they were 21, or so studies showed.

If you are going to subscribe to that belief then you'd also have to allow that they aren't responsible enough to be signing up for the military. Fighting in wars and making life or death decisions.

That's where the logic of the drinking age argument tends to lose me.

I hope this makes a bit more sense. :)

[TheDebbieDee]

15. I totally agree - If you're old enought to die for your country.......

(in an illegal, unjust war) then you're old enough to drink!

[Shipwack]

7. I'll reprint my reply in another thread...

NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

NO!

I will not put one of my shipmates into the ground because their legal age outstripped their judgment.

I swear by all that's holy if one of the Wisconsin sailors at my command get into an accident because of a reduced drinking age I will personally make a road trip to that state, put my boondocker up Rep.Pettis's ass, and stomp him around like a effin' snowshoe.

(Yes, I am upset, and I will put the mouse down and step away from the keyboard...)(Again...)

[uppityperson]

8. Raise the age to go into the military to 21

Give them some life experience first. They will be able to handle the stresses of the military better and perhaps be not so likely to over-react to things, though this might just be part of the lack of training and support in the military right now (don't bother flaming me for my poorly worded thought here please).

[acmejack]

10. If you are mature enough to vote, then you should be able to

It should extend to all of the 18 year olds. Just impose draconian penalties for DUI, the republiCONs do draconian very well. It is one of the few things that they do well, almost as well as lying.

[Skip Intro]

I say give it to all 18-21yr olds who Register to VOTE.

If you can help chose the course for the nation, and sure as hell if you can put your life on the line for it, you can drink.

Either someone is an "adult" in the eyes of the fed/state gov., or they aren't.

[UdoKier]

12. They can already drink at on base clubs at 18...

At least when I was in the service 15 years ago, it was like that...

I agree with having the drinking and military service ages match. Hey, how about a minimum age of 21 for the military! No more impressionable, unformed kids in the service! Sounds good to me!

[Hello_Kitty]

30. I wasn't allowed to.

I got in trouble for so-called underage drinking at 19 on a military base.

[KnowerOfLogic]

13. It should be 18 for *everyone.* If you're old enough to be held respons

ible for your actions and be thrown in jail with serial murderers, then you're old enough to drink.

[unhappycamper]

16. 18: Old enough to die = old enough to drink. n/t

[Warpy]

17. I want a drinking age of 14 for beer and unfortified wine

and a driving age of 18.

Let kids see what alcohol is going to do while they're still riding bicycles. Road rash will go a long way in convincing them that NO, they don't drive better when they're drunk.

It's the way Europe does it and they have far fewer problems than we do.

Me? I was raised on beer as a beverage with meals. I discovered it could get me addled at 13. I was WAY over it by the age of 15, for the reason I stated, a full year before I could drive a car.

And I've never driven under the influence.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. Any soldier that doesn't have a fake ID shouldn't be carrying a gun.

Haven't they discovered the time honored tradition of bribing Personnel Clerks?

Prices have probably gone up from $10 going rate when I was in, but they make a helluva lot more dough than the princely $79 per month we got to "defend" our country and get drunk on in 1961. Or, is that get drunk and defend our country from the "enemy" of the week?

[Generic Other]

19. New recruitment incentive?

Join up and drink up.

[FtWayneBlue]

20. Sounds like the lyrics need updated:

Eve of Destruction
You're old enough for war, but not for votin'
and even the Jordan River, has bodies floatin'

You're old enough for war, but not for drinkin'
and even the Euphrates River, has bodies sinkin'

[Canadian Socialist]

22. I, personally, want the drinking age to be 40

then I can go to a bar and not have to compete with the 16 year olds.

[Jacobin]

23. ROFLMAO. If this gets any more like Viet Nam, I'll know I'm in a time warp

Same fucking thing happened then.

"Old enough to go get yourself shot up, old enough to drink"

Fuck.

This is getting weirder and weirder and weirder

[enigmatic]

24. No-brainer

If you're old enough to be sent ff to war and die, you should be able to drink legally.

[Dee625]

25. One of my pet rants

I don't know about this Wisconsin lawmaker, but I've always had a real problem with the concept of the "drinking age" not being the same as the "legal adult age".

Way back when in the 70's the age to become a legal adult was changed from 21 to 18. Later, the federal government decided to change the drinking age to 21. We didn't used to have a drinking age.
(side rant on how they blackmailed the states on this omitted)

I firmly believe that whatever age is set to be an adult you should gain all rights and responsibilities. So long as drinking alcohol is considered to be a legal, it should be legal for ALL adults.
If 18-20 year olds are not mature enough to participate in this legal activity, then they cannot be mature enough to enter into legal contracts, vote, serve in the military or be tried and convicted as adults. Period.

[alarimer]

26. I'm guessing this is only to get more kids to sign up

"Gee, you get to drink now too but if you go to college you will have to wait to buy beer until you're 21" (We all know plenty drink anyway but this just smacks of a ploy to raise recruitment goals.)

[noiretextatique]

27. hey pettis...did you support the war?

how about not sending soliders to die based on comtemptable lies instead? thanks.

[Liberal In Texas]

28. That was the rationale for lowering the drinking age during 'Nam.

And it was, almost everywhere across the country.

[Old_Fart]

31. Years ago the drinking age was 18

:dem:

[BiggJawn]

32. Old enough to get a leg blown off, but not old enough to have a Beer...

What's wrong with this picture?