Sex, Alcohol, and Killing or being Killed

You must be 21 years old in order to legally buy and consume alcoholic beverages. In some states you must be 21 in order to legally buy sexually explicit material. But you only need to be 18 years old to legally kill people...or to risk being killed by them.

The logic escapes me. A young man or woman can join the military, be trained to kill upon command, then sent overseas to do just that, or to get wounded or killed themselves, at age 18. Conceivably, a young person could join at age 18, and be sent home in a box before their 19th birthday. And yet these same young people do not have full adult rights. They cannot legally buy and consume alcohol or, depending on what state they are from, purchase pornography.

Why? Because sex is more harmful to the minds of these young people than killing or suffering the risk of getting killed, the trauma and stress of warfare? I don't think so. Spending six months to a year in Iraq (or any other war zone) can leave you dead, seriously wounded, or mentally stressed to the point that you can't function right when you return home. It's a fact that returned war veterans have a higher suicide rate than the rest of the population. But in some states they can't buy a magazine or movie that shows two (or more) people giving and receiving pleasure via sex...because it might warp their minds?...because it might make them want to what...kill?

In the case of alcohol--and that ban is age 21 in all states--the situation is equally irrational. Why would society allow citizens they consider too young (mentally) to be able to handle alcohol to be trained to kill and then put a gun in their hands? I mean, if I thought that a person trained to kill humans was too immature to handle a few beers, I sure as hell wouldn't want to let him or her handle firearms. And, if I was that young person, why would I want to risk my life (over 3,000 soldiers kill in Iraq) if I didn't have full adult rights?

If foreign soldiers landed on our shores, every man, woman, and child that could fight would probably get into the fray. I don't have a problem with that. But, if you have been paying attention, then you would know that Iraq was not the direct and immediate threat to the United States that President Bush wanted us to believe. And now, our involvement there has put the United States and its citizens into more danger than if we had not gone into Iraq for the mythical and non-existent "weapons of mass destruction." That is, President Bush's war has made millions of people around the world hate America and Americans more than ever. In case you haven't notice, there doesn't seem to be a lack of suicide bombers.

Still, we are there now. To leave without doing the best we can to stabilize Iraq would be immoral. Of course, that type of immorality doesn't bother the government...just don't let the "underage" soldiers have anything to do with sex and alcohol. Well, to those "underage" soldiers risking their lives every day, I salute you (all of our soldiers, regardless of age)...and I would buy you a beer or two, if I could, as well as any porn magazine or video that you wanted to watch, if such was your nature.