Thomas P.M. Barnett:

I want to agree with both sides of this argument, but I won’t. Given the aging of our population and the competitive pressures of Friedman’s “flat world,” I think we need to make some choices in this Global War on Terrorism. I think that if we’re going to shrink the Gap, we’ll need a lot of manpower help, so moving toward strategic alliance with China kills two birds with one stone: takes great power war off the table and frees up resources within the Pentagon for more intensive focus on postconflict (which does cost, buddy, no matter what anyone tells you) while giving us historic access to allied troops we’ll need for the “long war” effort that will be shrinking the Gap.