The American-British military operation in Afghanistan and the Russian plane crash over the Black Sea are two absolutely different and absolutely far from equivalent events that have in common only the fact that both took place almost simultaneously and became headline news the world over.
The operation presented by the media as the first stage of the world coalition’s fight against terrorism caused an unprecedented growth of trust for the government among the Americans and a feeling of their involvement in global affairs among the British. The plane crash made Ukrainians, and not only them, lose their trust in at least their army leaders with all the ensuing consequences.
There are losses in the allies’ operation against the Taliban regime, as in any war. The media has already reported on the second chance fall of a missile since the beginning of the operation, this time into a residential area. One can also recall the mistakes of the NATO countries’ aviation during the alliance’s operation against Yugoslavia in 1999, when missiles hit a crowd of refugees, a television center, a passenger train, and finally the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. The Russian plane crash happened in a region where there were no military operations at all, thus no any possible parallels make sense.
It turned out that any “new” country becomes known primarily due to some emergency. So much the worse if this emergency is provoked by this same country’s actions. And worse still if this country’s leaders conceal the facts to the bitter end, unable to find the courage to tell the truth at once.
Accidents at sea, in the air, and on land occur far more frequently than we would wish. And most often they happen where they should not. The issue is the internal and external credit of trust, which is far from infinite. However, it is true that no matter whether the Ukrainian military forces are found guilty or not guilty in the tragedy over the Black Sea, the condition of official relations between Ukraine and Russia, Israel, or other countries will not suffer great damage. What is more important is how the communities of the West, East, South, and North are going to treat this country. Its image is now far from positive, the Western media being not the only ones to be blamed for this.
Ukraine’s image could be made better; Ukraine retains its long-standing chance to do this. It should take the opportunity by partially supporting the military operation. Information on few American troop carriers involved in it crossing Ukrainian airspace might escape public attention but still be significant. Ukraine should also try to at least not reduce the quantity and quality of its contacts — it is important here that the Europe Week proclaimed by the Ukrainian leaders does not turn into yet another action, which will be completely forgotten immediately after it finishes. First of all Ukraine must become a trustworthy country. This requires renewal in all fields, primarily in our way of thinking. It is very easy to lose the credit of trust, and apparently Ukrainian leaders should learn from their mistakes in this epoch when nothing can be concealed.
