This goes deeper than the US needing to have an adversary like the USSR.

China is still a communist superpower, with WMDs, appaling human rights abuses happening daily (don't get me started about Tibet) etc, and now Bush and Blair simply want to do business with them, morals be damned!

In truth, the USA is now in effect an Empire, acting with typical imperial disdain towards people it doesn't agree with (including it's own citizens). Part of the trick of running an empire is to make sure people who live in the motherland think a) they are right all the time and everyone else is wrong, and b) their leaders have their best interests at heart.

Lessons learnt from previous empires would seem to indicate this way of acting is wrong (ask the English - still hated by many in the British Isles and the world over for the wrongs of the British Empire). It's not good for the citizens of the Empire, or for those who live in countries that happen to get in the way of the (invariably) 'great democracy'.

The Americans will regret acting like this for generations - their grandchildren will pay the price for their leader's arrogance and imperialist attitude, even though they had nothing to do with it.