He laughed when I said "gubernatorial."

I asked him what was so funny.

"What did you just say?" he responded, ignoring my question.

"Gubernatorial."

My friend promptly started to crack up again. Apparently, "gubernatorial" sounds too much like "goober" for him to take my diatribe on the 2002 governor election seriously. I rolled my eyes and changed the subject.

The little incident would have passed from my memory long ago under normal circumstances, but that same friend is currently considering joining the Army.

He wants to see the world, fight terrorists, protect his nation, become GI Joe. But he thinks "gubernatorial" isn't a real word. He thinks politics are over his head and that he should just trust President Bush. He doesn't vote. He thinks that if we are at war, we should be at war.

He doesn't read the newspapers and gleans most of his knowledge of current events from The Daily Show. Sometimes, he can't tell when the news ends and the ironic, sarcastic asides begin.

Right now, people our age are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, carrying massive amounts of artillery in their backpacks instead of scribbled-on notebooks.

They're struggling to learn Arabic instead of looking through Spanish 002 dictionaries for dirty words. They're listening to "Lean Back" in stifling hot tanks instead of stifling hot frat parties. My group of friends and I post pictures on the Internet of illegal behavior, but it's just underage drinking. Groups of soldiers in Iraq post pictures on the Internet of illegal behavior, but these could expose potential human rights violations.

They are just like us - they need ways to blow off steam, want to get ahead in life, hope to meet that special someone. But their immaturity has ramifications far-beyond our insulated college world.

And how many of them understand what they are fighting for?

It is a volatile mix: people in peak physical condition, lonely, far from home, confused, in danger. And yet we find ourselves outraged when horrific events occur at the hands of our troops.

They engaged in the looting of priceless artifacts from an already poor nation - shocking, perhaps, but Americans loot whenever their favorite team wins a big game. They "let out steam" by abusing Iraqi prisoners. Who hasn't seen a random fight break out on a Saturday night as a way to get out drunken aggression?

The perpetrators of the internationally embarrassing and demoralizing events in the Middle East are just irresponsible, stupid 21- and 22-year-olds. In the past, soldiers of that age fought for our country in a professional, mature manner. Today, however, society has introduced a prolonged adolescence, where we have less responsibility and more freedom to "explore ourselves."

It is no coincidence that the younger soldiers are far more likely to become overzealous and angry, hurting the prisoners in their care.

Of course, there are soldiers of a young age who know why they are in Iraq and know what they need to do.

There are soldiers who are intelligent, mature and capable, soldiers who know the long history of Western involvement in the area and know why President Bush decided to send them to war (why is it, again?)

But military service disproportionately attracts lower income citizens, who often have less access to quality education and are more unaware of what circumstances prompted us to enter the country.

Possible solutions to these problems do exist, from reinstating the draft (my personal fear) to forcing Saddam Hussein and President Bush to engage in a duel on UN ground to determine the winner, as an Iraqi vice president suggested two years ago (my personal favorite).

But the real way to solve this problem is much less extreme and perhaps less fun to watch. There ought to be a mandatory education session during basic training, led by a nonpartisan organization, so that soldiers can fully understand what they are getting themselves into.

Without some sort of improvement in education for our young soldiers, we will continue to face international incidents that harm our image abroad, severely retard our credibility and diminish our power to bring stability to that downtrodden corner of the world.

We need to show our best face to the world, to give the Iraqi citizens our best, most knowledgeable citizens as an example of democracy - not 21-year-old boys who laugh at political phrases. The mere thought of friends of mine carrying firearms and spreading the seeds of democracy is enough to make me shudder.

I don't even trust them with my car.

Why should I trust them with my nation?