If we feel righteous in empowering 18 year olds with the tools of war and dispatching them to rain down our wrath - and perhaps be killed in the act - then they should be treated with the same capacity for adult thought and reason as anyone else - and with it the same great responsibility that comes with adulthood.

To that point, I think they (18+ year olds) should be allowed to drink, too, but that's a topic for a different day.