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Good post...

"Why we trade with these communist thugs and help strengthen their economy and their military capability is beyond my understanding."

I think this article (link below) written by Thomas P.M. Barnett (Advisor to both the Bush administration and the Pentagon) explains the "logic" (being polite) as to why those in power continue this type of disasterous (IMO) foreign policy concerning China and other countries considered yet to be fully included in the desired "Globalization" that we are hearing about more and more these days. It also includes the "logic" as to why we should have gone in to Iraq... WMD's or not.

http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2004/040510_mfe_barnett_1.html

I first found this article at www.cfr.org but is no longer there. I believe Mr. Barnett is a CFR member in good standing as are most of our top politicians and their advisors.

Barnett was appointed by Bill Xlinton. An anti-nationalist. All in favor of regional blocs. He has no national security knowledge or expertise, but he got to lecture at all of our generals and admirals from his perch in the Naval War College, with mandatory seminars they were forced to attend. Sample Barnett opinion: Reagan never won the Cold war, the Soviets collapsed of their own accord. Barnett comes out of the History program from the Red University of Wisconsin program. He then got his PhD at Harvard under the respected anti-communist Dr. Richard C. Pipes, but was apparently a contrarian who constantly hewed against the conclusions of his Professor. He must have come to the attention of Clinton's Deputy Secretary of State, Strobe Talbott, and gotten jumped over all those militarily knowledgeable when he was politically hired into the War College...way over his level. But give the Devil his due, he had a lot of hutzpa, and never flinched from issuing know-it-all liberal opinions. His comprehension of naval, aerospace and strategic defense issues is precisely nil. E.g., He assumes the U.S. navy merely has to show up and it wins. He assumes that China would Never attack the U.S.

Fortunately, Barnett was fired by Donald Rumsfeld this December. Too bad it wasn't 5 years ago. He apparently hit it off with Chenye and likely Rice, and badly injected his liberalism into our foreign policy thinking that has manifestly percolated up to GWB himself. Only after it came out that Barnett had been backing...and heavily contributing to... John Kerry the whole way...did things finally come to an end. Shutting down his little inside-confidence operation. His primary errors were one of economic determinism, ignoring the other major drivers of the human condition.