A Reminder: This Is How Communists Operate

It's over for now and our 24 military people are on their way home. President Bush deserves praise and thanks. The wording is diplomatic in tone, but Secretary of State Colin Powell has made it clear that the United States made no formal apology for anything our people did, because, as he said, we did nothing wrong. We were entitled to be in international air space. We were entitled, after a "mayday" broadcast to land at the nearest airport. Period!

The Chinese Communists will make out of this what they will, but they have given another very visible reminder to the world of exactly how they operate: through intimidation, oppression and censorship. In other words, they act like Communists. In case anyone has forgotten in the decade since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, this is one of Communism's faces.

President Bush gave up nothing and got everything. But we're going to have to reassess our relationship with China and whether all of the trade we do with them benefits them more than us.