Why is our youth old enough to shoot a gun in Iraq, yet not old enough to drink?

Question

The majority of our troops in Iraq are 18, 19, and 20 year-olds. Are they really mature enough to be handed an AK47, but not mature enough to drink?

Oh, my mistake. I didn't know they were issued M16's.

Answer 1

In my husband's family, the saying is if you are old enough to die for this country, get him a beer. My husband was 20 years old when he was stationed in Japan last year and they acutally changed the legal age to 20 over there, so technically he was legal, but I agree. It is one of the country's dumbest laws.

Answer 2

MADD and Elizabeth Dole are the main culprits; they used a fearmongering campaign to create the Minimum Legal Drinking Age law in 1984. They used drunk driving rates as a reason but there's two problems:

1. drunk driving rates were decreasing four years before the National Minimum Drinking age was passed into law.
2. If drunk driving rates were a problem, than just make tougher laws regardless of age. If you're going to raise it to 21, why not 40, 50, etc.?

Also, under the constiution, the states have the power to set the drinking age, so the MLDA bill made federal highway funding contingent on passing a 21-year old minimum drinking age. So, sadly, the whole policy as it stands today is more or less enforced through blackmail.

It is an an awful law and it should change. It's sad to see a young adult old enough to vote, marry, adopt a child, or be sent to Iraq as noted be taken into custody by police as a "minor" for doing something that, under any sane system (including most countries in the world), they'd have a right to do.

Not to mention the rise of the binge drinking culture in colleges due to the passing of the MLDA.

Sadly, the politicans won't do anything anytime soon, and it's sad that youth won't become more active in voting than they are now. If there was a serious campaign to change it, something might be done.

Answer 3

(1) No American troops are issued AK-47s (unless they're people like SF long-haired teams, and that's an entirely different question). You're confusing us with the Russian Army, perhaps.

(2) The law is the law. If they can't drink, they can't drink. NO ONE and I mean NO ONE in the military is allowed to consume alcohol in theater anyways. Alcohol + Guns = Bad decisions. Witness Mahmoudiyah, where our guys were drunk at their checkpoint.

(3) Alcoholism and binge drinking in the military are rampant as it stands. If you take an organization loaded with testosterone-driven males and dip them in the bottle repeatedly, what you get is assault, rape, spousal battery, drunk driving, and other alcohol-fueled crimes skyrocket - and I mean SKYROCKET. These problems are bad enough as it is, and alcohol is behind a lot of it.

I have been to too many memorial ceremonies and seen too many fellow Soldiers killed or maimed because they got behind the wheel drunk. I have seen too many pointless fights lead to the hospital and too many cases of alcohol poisoning. Keeping the 18-20 year old kids who are prone to making bad decisions anyways away from alcohol is a GOOD idea.


EDIT: To the respondent below: Some Arabs DRINK. Being Muslim does not equate being a teetotaller all the time. There are also Christian Arabs, surprise surprise. A big problem in Iraq is with liquor stores that get targeted by fanatics, owners killed and stores bombed out. Some regions are now dry because of this terror campaign against "vice".

Answer 4

This question is so redundant; it's been around since the Vietnam War.

Simply put, it's the law.

Contact your Senators or Governors to initiate action to change the law.

But, with my living here in South Korea, I can assure you that there are numerous underage drinkers here in South Korea, who decide to break the law and drink anyway. Their belief is simply, "this doesn't apply to me."

Wishful but disoriented thinking. They are old enough to join the military, but yet cannot handle a simple issue like obeying the law.

Does this show maturity? No, it doesn't.

Till the current laws are changed, the current laws stand firm on this issue.

Answer 5

I've been asking that question since I joined the Army
in 1966, Old enough to die but could not vote or drink.
Well not totally true, I could drink on base and foreign
countries but not the US. Also when I joined the legal
voting age was 21 and I was only 18

Answer 6

They are better off with a gun then they are with drinking. Alcohol is disgusting and is bad for your health and yes I know so is a gun, but at the same time what would alcohol do for you if you were in trouble?!? Nothing, but with a gun you have at least have some sort of protection.

Answer 7

Unless you're on the other side, your troops will not be handed an AK-47.

But, asside from that, yes, I agree that the drinking age in the US is a silly artifact of Prohibition.

Answer 8

i think that they are mature enough to handle a weapon. Those are two different situations and they have no relvance in the sense of military to drinking.

Plus they are healthier when they dont drink and they are adults so they have that privalge to join the military.

Answer 9

That's the way the law is. The law is written for the Nation as a whole not just the Military, and they don't use AK47's

Answer 10

Our Troops don't use AK47 assault rifles.They are issued
M-16 Assault Rifles, If you put it in proper context, they are at
work defending our Country. It would not be proper to drink at
Work, especially when lives are at stake, remember fellow
soldiers , trust their lives to their fellow soldiers.