Berlin: Barack Obama’s Conspicuous Absence

Any American president other than Barack Obama would have made the trip to Berlin for the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Wall, if only to celebrate the United States’ essential role in the victory of the liberation of Europe.

The president of the United States is too busy to accept Angela Merkel’s invitation. It’s true that the files have been piling up on his desk in the Oval Office. Health care reform has just passed in the House of Representatives and is about to face the real battle in the Senate. Unemployment keeps rising, despite signs of recovery. Afghanistan is still awaiting the president’s decision on what strategy to follow. And Benjamin Netanyahu is knocking on his door to remind him that Iran is getting closer every day to having nuclear weapons. In short, Barack Obama has a lot to do these days.

People will say that anniversaries are mostly about symbolism. But, for exactly that reason, it’s a shame that America only sent the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, while President Dmitry Medvedev represented Russia.

Barack Obama could have taken his rightful place in the bipartisan tradition of American presidential symbolism, from John F. Kennedy’s declaration of “Ich bin ein Berliner” in 1963, to Ronald Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbahchev, tear down this wall!” in 1987, just two years before the event celebrated yesterday.

Of course, Barack Obama made his own Berlin speech. But that was before he got elected. And by trying, unsuccessfully, to give it at the Brandenburg Gate, in the same spot where Ronald Reagan spoke his so prophetic words, the Democratic candidate seemed to be using his immense popularity in Europe to improve his chances in the American election.

Barack Obama was missing from yesterday’s gathering in Berlin of leaders whose countries have shaped our history. His absence is an eloquent confirmation of his lukewarm feelings towards a continent that is no longer a priority for the United States.

But he also missed an important opportunity. The fall of the Berlin Wall symbolizes the resolve of democracies in the face of oppression. America, like Europe, should be inspired to make all the walls come down – in Iran, in Afghanistan, in the Middle East and elsewhere.