That said, I find the “Old enough to vote, old enough to go to war and die for your country, old enough to buy a beer” argument absurd on the face of it.

Old enough to vote–yes, if you get your paperwork in order (including prove citizenship), register, and take the time to vote.

Old enough to go to war — true in the time of the real Senator Bayh (who spearheaded the “18-year-olds should be able to vote” campaign [and, for those who don't remember, at that time you could buy a beer and fight a war, but not vote]), but in the case of the volunteer Armed Services, you have to go through several hoops to “fight a war.”

So that leaves “buy a beer.” If you want to put all of those on a par, it seems clear that drinking publicly (“socially”) should be subject to restrictions and licencing, just as the other two are. Which still means the college professors who are hiding behind Wagenaar's work would still have to monitor the students who were not licenced (either by choice or by failure to qualify). Which they seem to want to avoid.

As Jazz referenced above, if a 19 year old is old enough to pay taxes and and fight and die for his/her country, then he/she ought to be old enough to drink alcohol.

In terms of freedom, this is one issue where the United States lags behind the vast majority of the other democracies of the world.

I'm suprised some aren't saying “old enough to drive, old enough to work, old enough to drink!” as well as to vote (Nader, Obama both could exploit this) and to lower the voting age as well as the drinking age to sixteen (Nader has sought this before; it's sought by some on the far left). Fifteen, even, with a learner's permit(!).

Hopefully the drinking age flap (popular among Obama's collegiate crowd, no doubt) won't be a gimmicky short-lived campaign issue between Obama and McCain. What a “town hall” question. [rolling eyes]

How about a 'moderate' compromise of 18 on their own, or 13 if with a parent or guardian at a restaurant or bar? That is the law here where I live in Texas, and I think it works great, myself.

I think I can understand the rationale on both sides here. My only concern is that lowering the drinking age to 18 could make alcohol more accessible to let's say 14 – 17-year olds in high school. What then? Let's not kid ourselves here. If our youth are determined to drink, they will most likely find a way, whether it is legal or not. I'd be interested to hear others on this. I know it may sound redundant, but personally, I feel that if you're old enough to die for your country in the service, then you should be old enough to sit down for a cold one (just so long as it's not something domestic and watered down).