West Let Opportunity Pass After Berlin Wall Fell

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it can be painful when we see things our country should have done and didn't when it had the chance. A perfect example of this followed the collapse of the Soviet Union as democracy swept the world back in the early 1990s.

A New York University professor recently discussed with PBS's Charley Rose about the West's, as in Western Europe and America's, missed opportunity when communism fell in much of the world. Instead of using those heady times to make great in-roads in the world as the only super power, we instead looked inward and missed a huge opportunity. Now that's all lost.

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, millions of people caught up in their first whiff of freedom sought what we had to offer. Everything seemed right and the rest of the world looked to us for leadership and guidance. Instead of stepping up and taking this opportunity, the West looked inward instead of outward. We could have affected so much change that benefited the world, and our country, but we missed the opportunity.

Nowadays, the United States has lost a lot of its clout when it comes to affecting policy around the world. Other countries do not look to us for leadership. They either go it alone or look to countries such as China and India for various needs. Even the European Union has gained credibility of late, but the United States still is not held in high regard.

We can blame it on the war, and that's a big reason, but we lost a moral high ground that everyone everywhere always admired us for. We lost it with Abu Grahib and Guantanamo Bay. We can argue why that shouldn't diminish us, and how unfair that characterization is, but it's the reality we live in.

Our opportunity was lost long before 9-11. It was lost when the first President Bush and President Clinton didn't use that critical time in world history to better our country's - or the world's - future. Let's hope we can turn that around in the coming years.