By the dozens, world leaders flocked to Paris during the weekend to join a march in solidarity with, well, civilization. They joined as many as 1.3 million French people upset and angry about Islamic terrorist attacks on a newspaper and a food market catering to Jewish Parisians.

French leaders in the front line of the march were joined by heads of state and other top officials from throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was there. So was Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Russia’s foreign minister attended, as did his counterparts from Turkey and Egypt, both Islamic nations.

Merely listing top officials from various countries who marched would take more space than we have available.

But the United States was not represented. Attorney General Eric Holder was in Paris – but stayed away from the march. President Barack Obama was in Washington.

By Monday, the White House was admitting Obama or some other high-level U.S. official should have taken part in the march. Not doing so was a mistake, the president’s aides conceded.

Throughout the world, top leaders made spur-of-the-moment decisions to go to Paris simply because they knew it was the right thing – the courageous thing – to do.

Neither our president nor anyone else high in his administration had that impulse.