The notion of China (substitute India, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, et al) as simply friend or foe and, therefore, not possibly just an important acquaintance seems as spurious to me as G. “Wunderkind” Bush’s ignorant claim, “You’re either with us or you’re against us.” More importantly, that mindset is clear evidence of America’s abject failures in international relations over the past five years.

The current administration is a one-tool (military) operation which has failed miserably through its abandonment of such useful tools as responsible leadership, intelligent persuasion, economic cooperation and the multi-nation solution of world problems. The United Nations itself has become a less effective tool because we have seen it only as a propaganda platform for the promotion of our own selfish objectives. We have not been a responsible give- and-take partner in that body, America’s 1945 invention, in years.

As far back as the early 1980s, when I visited China, one could feel the pulse beat of a waking giant. The entire East, as represented by China, India, Japan and numerous smaller nations in the bloc, is steadily on the rise, while the West has just as surely begun its own decline, aided by the nose-thumbing of “Old Europe” by administration stalwart, Donald Rumsfeld.

With our international reputation already in disarray, it would be a sad mistake indeed to saber-rattle with China. I would suggest that every effort be made to maintain a mutually respectful acquaintanceship with that nation and with other nations as well. And keep Rumsfeld and his cronies out of it. He has caused enough trouble.

John Waugh