The Berlin Wall Today

Volokh had a couple of posts up commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall – here, here, and here for example.

I am too young to remember the fall of the Berlin Wall or the collapse of the Soviet Union, but the idea of the wall, as I learned about it later, made quite an impression on me.? The Communists had voluntarily constructed a physical testament to their citizens’ fevered desire to escape.? And once that wall came down, the beneficent West welcomed the refugees with open arms.? But because I am too young to remember the Berlin Wall, another wall looms larger in my mind.

Today, a sickening parody of the past is unfolding.? A new wall goes up along our border, and the United States is building it.? It builds it not to keep its own rich well-fed citizens trapped inside, but to keep the poor and desperate out.? The Berlin Wall made a sick sort of sense.? The Communists needed to prevent the human material of their social experiments from escaping.? But the wall today is an aimless and demented cruelty, a jeering testament to our nation’s willingness to sacrifice its own prosperity, if only it can make our neighbors a little poorer.? It denies both the citizens inside our borders and those without the best operation of the capitalist system that was once the hope of desperate East Berliners.

Once we demanded that the Soviets tear down their wall.? Today we insist that our neighbors help us seal off our border.? So today, I look forward to the twentieth anniversary of the fall of a different wall, and a time when we will have seen it for the travesty that it is.

“And the Wall Came Tumbling Down”

Today, November 9, 2009 is the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a symbol of an era of German history that was plagued with repression and tremendous tragedy.

Dinesh Dsouza importantly reminds us in a recent National Review Online article:

?The West?s victory in the Cold War was not one that would have occurred if the policies of liberal Democrats had been in place. For this reason, the fall of the Berlin Wall is a reminder that liberalism was proven wrong in perhaps the greatest foreign-policy challenge since World War II.?

The policies proposed by the liberals in and out of government called for tolerance, which is to say, a policy of equal existence with the communists. Reagan on the other hand, recognized that the U.S.S.R. was an ?evil empire.?

Reagan was largely responsible for today?s celebratory anniversary. Obviously, Reagan had some crucial allies: Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, Vaclav Havel, Lech Walesa. Gorbachev too played an important role, although it was largely a role that he didn?t intend to play, one that was scripted for him by Reagan.

Reagan proved correct not only in his moral condemnation of communism but also in his analysis of the Soviet threat and the policies he devised to counter it. Even some who were previously skeptical of Reagan were forced to admit that his policies had been thoroughly vindicated. The arch ideological enemy of the Reagan Doctrine, Henry Kissinger and his policy of d?tente, observed that while it was Bush who presided over the final disintegration of the Soviet Empire, ?it was Ronald Reagan?s presidency which marked the turning point.?

The Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu wrote in his seminal work, The Art of War, ?to subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.? Margaret Thatcher echoed this maxim years later when she proclaimed; ?Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without even firing a shot.?

Moreover, today is not only a celebration of the end of a repressive era in German history, but a reminder of the failures and evils of Communism, and the triumph of democracy and freedom.

- Sam K. Theodosopoulos is the Editor-at-Large of the GW Young Americas Foundation Blog.

Berlin Wall- A Footnote the White House Forgot?

November 9 is the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Unfortunately, as has been widely reported, President Obama will skip the fall of the Berlin Wall ceremonies in Berlin, Germany. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will attend instead.

Some of the standard questions and comments brought up by others must now be asked here:

1. President Obama visited the Berlin Wall last year as a candidate- why not do it as President, for a truly momentous event in human history, as opposed to a simple national campaign?

2. He is going to Asia on November 11- seems like a snub to me to not go to Berlin if he is able to travel to Asia only two days later.

3. He took a trip to for the Olympics, but not for an important diplomatic function? Again, our president seems to be snubbing our important European allies.

This is yet another very embarrassing decision by the White House, and it is my hope President Obama will have a change of heart and attend the ceremonies, if for no other reasons than out of respect for the improvement of human rights the wall’s fall had on the world and to honor his predecessor- former President Ronald Reagan- for the great impact that man had on the wall’s fall.