MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- I might be beating a dead horse here, but I just can't keep my mouth shut any longer, so here it goes. The liberty buddy policy is a little off the mark; at least for the most part. According to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni Order 1050.3, "duty in any foreign country requires the highest degree of responsibility, maturity and self-discipline." Since the policy only applies to Marines who are the rank of lance corporal and below, one might be inclined to believe that the Marine Corps doesn't necessarily feel its junior Marines possess these qualities. That would include all of those three-year lance corporals with high cutting scores, those immature mother and father lance corporals on an unaccompanied tour, those undisciplined homeowner lance corporals, and let's not forget those irresponsible over 21 lance corporals who may have joined a little later in life. I'll admit that most of the people in the "non-rate crowd" are fairly young and on their own for the first time, but there are also some of us who learned "not to eat the paste" a long time ago. As much as I hate to say it I just have to. Whether you are a civilian or a Marine, an idiot is an idiot, and sadly enough my fellow Marines, you know as well as I do that they are among our ranks. Unfortunately, there is no law or policy in the world, other then natural selection, which is going to keep you from being an idiot. The worst thing about an idiot is that when they are about to do something completely asinine the majority of them actually prefer a crowd. Enter the liberty buddy. It wasn't so long ago that one particular group of buddies decided that Hiroshima and Iwakuni weren't so far apart. They found out the road gets a little longer after a night on the town. Seven injured people and four damaged vehicles later and we've got a U.S. Marine sitting in a Japanese prison enjoying Japanese food, according to what I've been told. So what happened there? There were five Marines in that car. Subtract the moron driving and that's four totally ineffective liberty buddies. To top it all off the driver was a corporal - he's supposedly responsible enough to leave the Station without a liberty buddy. Here's another example for you to think about. Two Marines walk out the gate and into town. They stop by a little restaurant, grab a bite to eat, wash it down with a beer or two, shop for some souvenirs and head back to base. Wow! Either that liberty policy was really working its magic or those two have enough sense to understand how to behave. I tend to side with the latter. A lot of people say that the majority of trouble is caused by the E-3 and below ranks so policies like this are needed. We're the biggest part of the Corps. That's like saying that out of all the people who eat at the chow hall, most of them are Marines. No kidding!Now I'm not one to complain without offering a solution, no matter how crazy it may seem. Age is an obvious factor, but need not be the only one. Those above the age of 21 should at least be afforded a shot at proving their maturity. You can't honestly tell me a 20-year-old corporal is responsible enough to go off base by himself and a 26-year-old lance corporal isn't. And don't even bother with the "he earned it" speech. I think of that one every time I see a 16-year-old dependent driving around the Station with a carload of buddies. In all honesty though, the liberty policy needs some serious looking into. This issue comes up more often than most and it does so for good reason. There are those among us who have earned the reputation of a responsible member of society and should be treated as such. Unfortunately, the reality of it is that the policy may never change, but we can continue to uphold the standards we've been taught and strive for the next rank. Hopefully, commentaries like this won't mysteriously raise my cutting score!