Should you be allowed to fight in the army, but not drink alcohol?

Should you be allowed to fight in the army, but not drink alcohol?

The drinking age varies drastically throughout the world. In many countries you are aloud to drink at as young as sixteen! Some countries don’t have a minimum drinking age at all. America is the only country that the drinking age is 21, although you are considered an adult at eighteen.

At eighteen you are thrown into the world of adult hood. You are expected to be dependent on yourself (unless you are one of the lucky ones whose parents will still take care of you). You move to college, live on your own or get a job, and even pay taxes. You can vote for the person who will lead our country, and join the army. One of the few things you can not do is drink. Although this law has always bothered me, tt wasn’t until really recently that it really caught my attention.

During winter brake this year a friend of mine came back to visit from Iraq, where he spent the last three years defending our country. He left for Iraq at eighteen, and I had not seen him since. He came to meet me at the mall, and when he walked up to me I could hardly recognize him. That goofy smile and charm that had once lit up his face was gone. He was no longer that silly kid I had once known. His experiences in the Army had changed him, as I’m sure they would anyone. On our car ride to my house I was shocked to here the hoarer stories he told me about friends he had lost, and how close he had come to loosing his own life. That night was New Years Eve. He went with my family to a restaurant on Miami Beach to celebrate the New Year. In Iraq the drinking age is eighteen, so he was able to buy a drink so naturally, he tried to order champagne. Since he is only twenty, they turned him down. It bothered me that after everything he has done for our country he couldn’t get a drink. I continued to dwell on it all night.

It boggled my mind how at eighteen you can be enlisted in the army and watch people and friends die, but not consume alcohol. I brought this up to my mom and she followed with the answer that many adults tell there children when asked why they can’t drink at eighteen. “At eighteen you are not responsible enough to make that decision. Drinking is a privilege and it can put not just your own life, but others in danger.” At eighteen you are trusted to handle guns and other deadly weapons, but you can’t handle the responsibility to make decision weather or not you want to consume alcohol. This did not make sense to me. If you are able to watch your friends die, handle guns, and experience the fear of almost loosing your life, shouldn’t you be able to sit down and relax with a beer on your vacation in the land you are fighting to protect?

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