It is this kind of model that most Afghans want and the U.S. needs to provide so Afghanistan doesn't revert to the kind of chaos that beset it in the mid-1990s and from which the Taliban first emerged.
Any rebalancing of American policy toward China would most likely cause the Chinese to conclude that the U.S. beset by an economic crisis is retrenching from many of its traditional commitments and can't be counted on to pursue robust policies across a range of international issues.
Luckily, the limited government bequeathed by our Founders spurred such affluence that absurdities like free health care haven t yet bankrupted us, although leaving such clout to shifting passions is particularly treacherous in a nation beset by identity politics.