Yeah, that sounds about right (again)

An amazingly insightful post was put up yesterday at Thomas P. M. Barnett's blog discussing the long-term strategic scenario we find ourselves in dealing with all our lovely "axis of evil" and how badly the current administration is botching it. Key item:

In East Asia, would I have a Six-Party forum on North Korea? No. I'd have an X-party forum on creating an East Asian NATO, within which I'd most deliberately set China up as the mainland mainstay. I'd get them as comfortable as possible strategically, and then I'd talk about North Korea with them within that context. I wouldn't keep up the
Taiwan charade. I wouldn't invite Japan to join my defense guarantee on that. Frankly, I'd tell the whole region that I'm seeking strategic alliance with Beijing and that I want them in on that most important discussion. And when Kim got nervous and jumped up and down, I'd look him in the eye and say, "Don't worry, we're going to get around to you soon enough." And then I'd let Kim's desperation and paranoia set the timetable for the rest of what needed to be done to create an East Asian NATO. But I would most definitely lock in China at today's prices, and travel through Beijing to get to Pyongyang--at a speed of China's choosing but enabled by my rapid embrace of China as a strategic ally.

Yeah, it doesn't jive with much current political thinking that China is the new Soviet Union, but they don't really act like the Soviet Union so why treat them as such? Check out the whole thing.