in public: symbolically fire a few Tomahawks at their training camps, make some noise, run another fake Bin Laden video saying he's dead, etc etc.
covertly, pay them even more money to attack China and Russia instead which they've been doing with the Chechens and Uighurs. Use the huge lead in hard and soft power the US had in the 90's to consolidate the eastwards advance of NATO and the sanctioning of China, with the final blow being rejection from the WTO. The gates close on China and Russia's development. China's GDP growth drops below 8% while Russia stagnates and hyperinflates, as under Yeltsin. Putin loses the presidency in 2004 to a US puppet, or worse, is killed in a military coup. Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao are ousted by more pro Deng, pro elite factions during the NPC/CPC elections in 2007, being even 1 term presidents and premiers. With them worrying about their political futures, there's no real advancement of China's armed forces. We're forced to allow US carriers dock in Shanghai and US soldiers rape Chinese women the way they do to Koreans and Japanese. A massive riot breaks out, riot police are called in to break it up, the US enforces a "no fly zone" over Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong, and we become a colonial slave state again.
The US flag will then fly over the entire globe, and its only remaining opponent would be suppressing India, which for the US would be like a prize boxer beating down a 5 year old.