A Wisconsin state representative has come up with what seems like a novel way to get kids to sign up for the war: a lowered drinking age for soldiers.
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.
I have to admit, that as an 18 year-old, I used to make the argument that, if I was old enough to go to war, I should be old enough to drink. While that may or may not be true, I smell something fishy when a Republican lawmaker offers it up when recruiting rates have fallen so sharply.
