The Pentagon announced Sept. 22 that Maj. Rodolfo I. Rodriguez, 34, of El Paso, Tex., died Sept. 20 in Islamabad, Pakistan, of wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device. The blast reportedly killed some 53 people, including two DOD personnel. Rodriguez was assigned to the 86th Construction & Training Squadron, Ramstein AB, Germany.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…