Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Tripoli Tuesday to meet with Libya’s Transitional National Council President Mustafa Abdel-Jalil and pledge additional US support as Libyans form a new government. She is the most senior US official to visit the war-torn country since NATO’s Operation Odyssey Dawn/Unified Protector kicked off in March. Alliance officials cautioned that the mission isn’t over yet. “We are very close to the end, but there are still threats to the population,” said NATO deputy spokeswoman Carmen Romero. “And, as long as these threats persist, we will continue with our operation.” (AFPS report by Donna Miles)
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…