Commentary Some may not know at all, some may have forgotten, but at one time, the Panama Canal was a worldwide symbol of American optimism, spirit, and ascendency to the world stage. After multiple ventures and proposals from Britain and France never really came to fruition in the 1800s, two consecutive French endeavors tried and went bankrupt. The American Government under the iconic figure of President Teddy Roosevelt, spent two years negotiating with Congress over competing interests, resolving differences on whether to seek a new route through Nicaragua, negotiating a significant discount to the French asking price for the work they had accomplished, and siding with Panamanian separatists over the anemic Colombian central government to start the Canal in 1904 and by 1914 it was opened. Once opened and operated, the American military fortified the Panama Canal zone and had multiple forts, airfields, naval stations, and other facilities. Until the …