They come at us, like postcards from the edge. They tell stories in black and white about events that are milky gray. We're talking headlines, the heartbeat of news being made around the world.
The casual observer on Main Street, U.S.A. ponders whether the re-election of Vladimir Putin as president of Russia is a victory for bullying and dictatorship or a reigning-in of oligarchic rule and far-flung governors who had set up their own fiefdoms.
In Eastern Europe, the man in beaver hat glances over a newspaper. He reads where the democratic-elected president of Haiti has been kidnapped from his own country by primarily U.S. forces. Or did a corrupt leader go willingly?
One can juxtapose headlines from most corners of the world, and the stories can be damning: Britain accused of spying at the United Nations. U.S. soldiers accused of abusing prisoners in Iraq. An administration accused of overselling WMD.
Closer to home, we have, over the years, seen such headlines as Ukraine Election Fraud, Ukraine Sells Radar to Iraq, Ukraine Imposes Press Censorship, and of course, reports having to do with murder and other intrigues.
One can not be an apologist for one government without acknowledging the misgivings and seemingly poor judgment of most all governments. In the final analysis, nations act in their national interest. Or more specifically, they act in what their leaders perceive to be the national interest.
Look back into history: A U.S. president hyped an incident in Vietnam's Gulf of Tonkin. It led to the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. The final result, some 50,000 casualties later, was the eerie scene of helicopters evacuating desperate people from the roof of the U.S. embassy in what is now known as Ho Chi Minh City.
One reads that Europeans these days are not so much anti-American as anti-President George W. Bush. And certainly, the average Ukrainian or Russian has little influence on the politics of respective governments. One can not blame Ivan and Oksana for either Putin or Kuchma.
One is tempted, however, to say that in the United States the people, at least, have a legitimate say in who their government leaders will be. However, through the eyes of many abroad, America's last presidential election was flawed and, to some, a sham.
Whether this is true or not is not nearly so relevant as it is what people believe to be true. In an elementary course on American democracy in Africa, it is difficult to explain the Electoral College process, much less those hanging chads and dimpled ballots in Florida.
Another example: Many months into the occupation of Iraq, one would have thought the infamous Kochuga radar the U.S. accused Ukraine of selling would have been discovered, but obviously it is as illusive as WMD.
Still, there was righteous certitude on the part of the U.S. government a year ago that the radar was sold to Saddam Hussein's renegade regime, and those infamous and furtive tapes in Leonid Kuchma's office seemed to add to this evidence.
And what about the tapes themselves?
A damning indictment of Kuchma's rule, or a ploy by political opponents? History has a way of putting the spotlight on the good, the bad and the ugly.
When he ran for office, Bush said that he wanted nothing to do with nation building. Events forced him to rethink that position. Today the U.S. is the chief engineer of nation building in Afghanistan and Iraq. Can Haiti be far behind?
We, the observer, measure events in Kodak moments.
What else would explain a president (again, Bush) going from a sure winner a few short months ago to no more than an even bet today? It seemed to happen with the swiftness and fickleness of a bird flitting from one fencepost for another.
Who can forget Howard Dean? Once the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, he is a ghostly character in a tragic comedy today, not even a laugh-line in a Jay Leno monologue. Most of us will forget him. He will soon be a historic afterthought, perhaps the answer to a trivia question.
There are a few universal truths here: First, as always, hindsight is 20/20; and second, it takes time for reality to catch up with perception. When it does, there is most often a price to pay.
The trick, of course, is to be able to see into the future. Nostradamus, where are you when we really need you?
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