Last week we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, an event which has come to symbolize many things. Not having lived in East Germany, and without having accumulated too much Cold War anxiety in my young life (when the Cold war neared hot I was too young to care, when I grew old enough to notice, it started winding down) it's not a point of history which affected me much. No, I don't remember where I was when the wall came down.

The Victory of the West, or How the East Was Won--the great wall fall is credited to Reagan (though it happened under Bush) and it, along with Polish solidarity and the Russian coup is one of the "big three" events which signaled the death of communism. Well, except in Cuba and China. All I really remember is a sketch from "Saturday Night Live" with Dana Carvey playing George Bush, gesticulating at the camera and saying, "Before Bush--wall. During Bush-- wall comes down"

But some feel a bit more strongly. The Wall Street Journal called the Wall "an ugly metaphor for the bankruptcy of communism" and they ran, with their anniversary editorial, a line drawing of a cheerful Ronald Reagan and the caption "recognized the power of freedom." Yes, that's what we'll all remember Reagan for, won't we? He recognized the power of freedom. He also recognized the power of smuggling weapons into tiny Latin American countries and subverting the local political will whenever possible. But no, Reagan was a crusader for freedom and he proved it because he brought down the Berlin Wall.

I rather think the Germans did that, but no matter. It is true that life was hard in East Germany and that freedoms were scarce. It was not a good place to live and the people there deserved better. But we didn't defeat East Germany. The United States had little to do with that. But then, if you listen to our media, the U.S. brought about the downfall of Soviet communism as well. It's more likely, I think, that these structures collapsed from the inside. No barbarian hordes sacked Russia or Germany like they did Rome.

Also, the end of the wall didn't symbolize the bankruptcy of communism (be it moral or intellectual or otherwise) and it's really not a symbol-- the wall served a utilitarian purpose, to prevent East Germans from getting into West Germany and its fall happened when people got sick of living that way. Communism didn't fail, totalitarianism did. The tragedy of Germany divided, further, wasn't caused by communism, but totalitarianism and by a world bent on borders. Truly, the rest of the world had more to do with the creation of the Berlin Wall than its collapse.

Germany was split up as punishment for starting two world wars -- everyone hated the Germans because the Germans had, well, invaded everyone. Certainly, "punishment for starting two world wars" wasn't quite the rationale expressed, but it was a lot like the French occupying the Rhine after the first war. Also, I remember jitters when they were reunified, people wondering if Germany would invade Poland and France while attacking England and Russia again. It was all a bunch of silly talk. Split up, Germany lost a lot of time and the world changed rather quickly in the 45 years between World War II and unification. I'll bet the French were even hoping the Germans would invade again; this time around, they'd kick some German tail.

This is basically a German holiday, one they should celebrate and enjoy without having to share credit with our addled former President and his out of control Pentagon. We Americans have no excuse for back-slapping. We are, after all, one of the countries that helped divide Germany in the first place.

Michael Maiello thinks that dividing countries down the middle is a bit too much like policy borrowed from "I Love Lucy."