That has long been the argument for lowering the drinking age (or, in some circles, raising the enlistment age!).  Well, if Rep. Mark Pettis of Wisconsin has his way, the drinking age for Wisconsin soldiers may drop to 19.  Its a controversial plan, but perhaps one whose time has come?  The logistics would need to be worked out, since the proposed exemption would apply ONLY to Wisconsin soldiers and ONLY in Wisconsin...  And ONLY if the Federal Government agrees not to yank $50 million in highway aid, the stick they have long used to keep state drinking ages at 21.  But, it might be one recruiting tool they haven't tried yet....

And, speaking of recruiting, the Pentagon ALWAYS releases its recruiting numbers for the previous month on the first business day of the next month.  Not so for May, which was delayed until June 10, due to serious shortfalls last month.  According to a Pentagon spokesman, “Military recruiting is instrumental to our readiness and merits the earliest release of data. But at the same time, this information must be reasonably scrutinized and explained to the public, which deserves the fullest insight into military performance in this important area.”  When asked if the move would just be a delay of bad news, the response was, “that's not necessarily true," because "we expect the numbers to improve during the summer months.”

Hmmm.  The numbers for the summer aren't going to change what happened last month.  But by delaying the routine release of information by a week, the Pentagon has simply drawn more attention to a story that would otherwise have been a blip in the news.  Like I said, maybe the Wisconsin proposal has some merit....

(And, for anyone who cares, the Army was short by about 1600 soldiers in May, or 25% less than its recruiting goal.)