GEORGIE ANNE GEYER Events of 2005 defy easy definition

WASHINGTON -- Trying to & quot;wrap up & quot; 2005 is like trying to wrap a gift where, despite your best efforts, it keeps falling to the floor, the ribbons get all tied up in themselves, the sticky tape won't hold the paper, and you end up cursing the holiday.
I just can't get a hold on this year. I can't define it. Things were going in all directions at once, and we journalists just hate that: Give us a good solid year like 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, or even the clarity of 2001, with the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Nevertheless, since it's leaving us fast, let's try.
Not a great year for Bush
First, it's hardly any secret that 2005 was NOT George W. Bush's favorite year. His approval ratings fell below 40 percent, the lowest of his presidency; his claims to such extraordinary powers for the presidency as having the right to monitor the calls of any and all Americans finally forced the Congress to come to life and defeat him on the torture amendment -- and, most probably this winter, the renewal of the Patriot Act. With his swagger accompanying what many hoped would be his swan song, he seemed to have lost his bearing.
And why not? The radicals and neocons who had given him the flawed rationale about a new American empire on the horizon had largely abandoned him to Iraq. Under the surface, the pros in the Pentagon and the CIA were devising ways to begin a dignified exit from a state the U.S. has set up as a nine-province majority Shiite mini-state connected to Iran, an independent Kurdish state and an ongoing Sunni insurgency. So much for American empire.
Global view of U.S.
The Pew Research Center again reported that the U.S. was & quot;broadly disliked & quot; in the world. Meanwhile, the president, in his stubborn moments, continued to insist that only he knows how to protect Americans, that only he knows what is good for us.
Ah, but there are the folks who like to see the world in clear and certain terms. This end-of-year, many of them have just returned from China, saying: & quot;If America is not going to rule the world, then it must be China! & quot; After all, the Chinese could diss George W. when he visited there earlier this year -- they know who holds whose bonds, if W. does not.
But the & quot;Chinese hegemony & quot; idea turns out to be as ephemeral as empire in 2005's story. In China today, one sees the amazing trans-planetary buildings of the new Beijing; the senses are stimulated by the incredible lights and beauty of Shanghai, and China boasts a growth rate of 9 percent to 10 percent most years. But ...
Inside this incredible shell, China faces serious implosion. This fall, the headlines were dominated by gunfire and bloodshed between the rebellious farmers and fishermen in town after town.
Expanding European Union
What about the European Union in 2005? That huge entity, soon to be a union of Western and Eastern European states, plus some on the borders, will comprise 500 million people. The attraction of & quot;joining Europe & quot; is insatiable in the East, with Ukrainians the newest penitents to join what is looked upon as modernization. But nationalistic Europeans, angry at the officious bureaucratization of the E.U., refused to approve the E.U. constitution in 2005.
So, what, then, was 2005?
If you listen to The Associated Press, whose perceptive editors choose the top 10 stories every year, these were the big ones for 2005: Hurricane Katrina, papal transition, the Iraq war, the Supreme Court vacancy, the rise in oil prices, the London bombings, the Asian quake, Terri Schiavo, the CIA leak, and Bush's struggles.
If you listen to Pope Benedict XVI, speaking at Christmas: & quot;The men and women in our technological age risk becoming victims of their own intellectual and technical achievements, ending up in spiritual barrenness and emptiness of heart. & quot;
If you look at educational statistics, you see why so many other things go wrong: The American Library Association compiled a large study this year and found that, among other awful things, only 31 percent of college graduates could read a complex book and extrapolate from it.
Finally, I think this was a transitional year, when everything was being questioned but little was resolved. That isn't very invigorating or exciting, but it does mean that there's an open window for Americans to look through -- and to act upon -- in 2006. It also means that the Bush administration war cabal, which looked as though it may have changed America for all time, has not done so.
Me? I can't wait for midnight.
Universal Press Syndicate