But the opportunity was wasted.

Another opportunity was missed later in the decade.

Unfortunately, this also means that a unique opportunity has been lost.

T he great opportunities offered by European integration have been largely squandered.

Instead, Africa squandered the opportunity on consumption of foreign goods.

The World Trade Organization, meanwhile, has wasted valuable time on the irrelevant Doha round.

But, for a combination of political and personal reasons, America lost time under the two presidencies of Bill Clinton.

Unfortunately, the Commission composed mostly of elected officials, rather than experts wasted its time in political squabbles.

If these generations are lost, development efforts will be seriously undermined and societies may be destabilized.

But, within two decades following the war in Iraq and financial and economic crisis the US had squandered that special status.

The former point to economic development the latter maintain that tens, even hundreds, of billions of dollars have been squandered.

Once again, Japan has missed a chance to rebuild trust in a part of the world where, in the absence of cooperative international institutions, trust is all there is.

Course of the war News of war declarations reached the French fortress at Louisbourg first, on May 3, 1744, and the forces there wasted little time in beginning hostilities.

Since India gained independence 58 years ago, billions of rupees have been doled out in numerous educational policies, but general primary education remains abysmal.

The US Treasury Department wasted valuable time in 2008 by not using the funds provided by Congress to deal with those housing market problems.

One could despair the Bush administration has obviously wasted almost seven years during which it could have pursued a solution. We are now back to the starting point the Camp David and Taba talks flippantly abandoned in January 2001 are to be taken up again.

These transfers have accelerated convergence when put to good use (for example, in several Spanish provinces), but have been ineffective when wasted (as in Greece).

Airbus, Renault, Crédit Lyonnais, and Alstom are well known examples of a mistaken industrial policy that has wasted French taxpayers money and that is partly connected with the name Sarkozy.

On this issue, the Bush administration wasted eight precious years during which we have gotten perilously close to the point at which an irreversible chain of events could occur that leads to catastrophe.

Now an opportunity to introduce young blood and new ideas has similarly been missed although the Sixth Congress adopted a ten year limit for holding office, the two people designated to succeed Raúl Castro are both octogenarians.

That was a tragic missed opportunity, for a US Soviet agreement, reached in what was still an essentially binary international system, might have had truly global meaning.

Moreover, trillions of dollars have been wasted, with the few positive effects of the US led military intervention already beginning to fade, and its many adverse consequences continuing to destabilize the region.

As the victorious heir to the collapsed Cold War order, the United States stood alone, undisputed, at the peak of its global power. But, within two decades following the war in Iraq and financial and economic crisis the US had squandered that special status.

Whether deliberately or not, regulators seem to have missed their chance to implement serious changes to the rules of global finance, and governments are now so weakened that they are at the mercy of those who, not long ago, were begging them for help.

Iraqi legislators are considering reducing the age for child marriage to nine. Pakistan s Council of Islamic Ideology is calling for all age limits on marriage to be abolished.

Unfortunately, the Commission composed mostly of elected officials, rather than experts wasted its time in political squabbles. Its members could not agree even on how to define subprime mortgages and calculate how many such mortgages there were in the United States at the time of the crisis.