I am in awe of decisive people. You know them; they’re the people who don’t need to think about it before they make a decision or form an opinion.

I have met people like this. They have some kind of mechanism in their brain by which they can instantly determine what

they consider the best course of action. Boy, would that be nice.

Sometimes the world is divided into black and white for people like this. Politics is one place where you see it. The &uot;other side,&uot; under all circumstances, is the bad guy. Anything the other side likes, you’re supposed to hate. It must be nice to have such a handy template to apply to all the world.

Even if it can’t be done instantly, it’s impressive to me when somebody has enough conviction to come to a conclusion and then be willing to defend it. Some people have a strong set of guiding principles and tastes that govern what they do or what opinions they hold. That’s even more impressive to me. These people are decisive, but not as predictable as those who think everything falls into black or white.

I mention all this because I’m realizing how indecisive I am most of the time. Sometimes I wish it was simple for me, that I could form an opinion on something easily. Regrettably, like most everything else once you’re over the age of 15 or so, its sometimes hard work to be decisive.

Take any old issue, from what to have for dinner any night to whether our country should attack Iraq. Hey, I don’t have an answer on either of those. Just as I scour cupboards and cookbooks trying to find something that would make a nice dinner, I read through articles, letters and editorials about Iraq without deciding what stand I’m going to take.

Some people don’t have trouble planning meals. There are those who have the same five things for dinner all their lives.

There are those who can at least come up with something when they think about it. Likewise, there are people who stand out on the street corner with signs saying &uot;No War In Iraq.&uot; Some of them would be against war no matter what the reason for it. Others have formed their opinion based on careful study of the present circumstances. And there are people who yell at the people with the signs, and who think questioning something like that is unpatriotic.

And there are those who respectfully disagree.

Regrettably, I can’t align myself with any of those people, whether we’re talking about dinner or Iraq.

The problem is that all the arguments make sense.

The people who back the war &045; the Fox News Channel types &045; make good arguments. Saddam Hussein is truly an evil man, and what do we think he’s going to do with all those weapons? Come on, we all know he has them. The country has to act to protect itself before another Sept. 11, not after. If the United States had gone after Afghanistan before Sept. 11, 2001, people would have been crying foul about preemptive strikes. Saddam is a threat, and he doesn’t like us. Plus, he’s pretty hard on his own people.

On the other hand, isn’t he more likely to hand off his nasty weapons to terrorists if he’s &uot;cornered,&uot; as so many have said? That makes sense. And should we really set the precedent of attacking somebody who hasn’t attacked us or our interests? I can see that logic. Would that war be just? Would the casualties be worth it?

See what I mean? Some people gravitate to one side of the other, but I tend to sit in the middle, looking back and forth, taking a step in one direction and then stopping and going back to the middle.

Same with the state. I can agree that cutting all these programs is bad news, and that it would be more fair in many ways to raise taxes. I can also agree that government could stand to be reorganized and trimmed, and that refusing to raise taxes could help the state in the long run.

I wouldn’t mind agreeing with one side or the other exclusively. It would make things so much easier.

But maybe the issue isn’t me being indecisive. Maybe in hard times, the decisions are just hard. Certainly, it isn’t all black and white. Maybe those who think it is are really just fooling themselves.

And maybe the people making the decisions, no matter how it appears publicly, are having as much trouble figuring it out as I am. I guess that’s what makes leadership hard. If everything was easy to figure out, we wouldn’t have to worry about who’s running the show.

Dylan Belden is the Tribune’s managing editor. His column appears Sundays.