Should 18 year olds in the military be allowed to drink alcohol?

Personally I think that the drinking age should be lowered for military personnel. If you are old enough to die for your country, vote, legally marry, receive the death penalty, buy and own firearms, or smoke, you should be allowed to drink a beer.

If we look at other countries, like Germany, the drinking age is 16 for beer and 18 for hard liquor. These countries have much lower averages for DUIs, underage drinking, and alcohol related deaths. They have also have a higher age for getting a drivers license (17 for a learners permit). So if you look at it, the young people in Europe learn their tolerance for alcohol long before they ever get in a car. There are also higher penalties for driving offences and the cost to get a license is much, much higher. American teenagers have a tendency to drive too fast. Now we take into account five years driving experience, over confidence, and the fact that a 21 year old, sometimes, is little more then a large child. Add beer. Granted there are responsible 13 year olds who would be able to handle driving, beer, and even raising a family (I am not saying they should, just that they are there) so there are both sides of the spectrum.

Now imagine that you are a responsible parent, loving and protective. You decide that as a parent, your child can have a beer or perhaps a glass of wine with dinner at 18. If the government, IE. police, show up to your door you could go to prison for giving an adult alcohol. Does that make sense to anyone?  It does not.