Just before dawn a Taliban force, employing suicide bombers, rocket-propelled grenades, and small arms attacked Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, killing one contractor and wounding nine servicemembers over an eight-hour firefight, according to various news reports. The US and NATO response killed about 12 insurgents, including four intended suicide bombers. According to a Defense Media Activity release, Army Lt. Col. Clarence Count Jr., spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-82 at Bagram, said the Taliban clearly “intended a spectacular event,” but the attackers “were unable to breach the perimeter and unable to detonate their suicide vests.” He added, “The quick defensive reaction by the Bagram security forces likely saved a lot of lives.” (Also see, Washington Post report; Associated Press report, via Fox News; Reuters report via The Guardian; Bagram Media Center report)
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…