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C-130J assigned to the 37th Airlift Squadron at Ramstein AB, Germany, brought 30 injured Libyan rebels from Tripoli back to Ramstein to receive medical treatment. The Oct. 29 aeromedical evacuation flight marked the first time that US aircrews evacuated Libyan casualties since chaos erupted in the North African nation in mid-March. “All of these patients were injured as a result of recent fighting and suffer from conditions that cannot currently be treated in Libya,” wrote Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a joint statement. The Secretaries called the gesture a “small token of our support, because we are committed to Libya’s future.” Medical personnel from Ramstein and the nearby Landstuhl medical center ministered to the Libyans, 24 of whom were destined for treatment in the United States. The remaining six were ferried to a German hospital. (Ramstein report by SrA. Katherine Holt)
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…