P a c N e t 3 1 P A C I F I C F OR U M · H ON OLU LU , H I M a y 3 , 20 24

In the first instance, it would be naive to overlook the Not unlike the Waffen SS of Nazi Germany, these peculiar psychoses of a ruling military caste that over loyalist units are composed of well-equipped, seven decades of power, privilege and impunity has disciplined troops with a high esprit de corps and an come to view itself not merely as the defender of the undoubted readiness to escalate th. [...] PDFs in the Myanmar heartland fight as loose coalitions of lightly armed guerrillas that for the most Against the backdrop of a traditionally fraught part have learned on the job. [...] remains unclear whether China will attempt to use its influence over the Brotherhood to limit large-scale This stark disparity raises the prospect of a potentially support to PDFs under the NUG’s command-and- protracted and savage war across the crowded control in the heartland; or alternatively, whether it heartlands of Myanmar with far heavier losses in has come to view the Brotherhood allies as. [...] The most urgent relates to military capability and the Hailed by the NUG as a model for liberated extent to which key EROs are prepared to ramp up administration, Kawlin was then shelled, bombed, training and logistical support for heartland PDFs and depopulated, and finally retaken by the military in in certain theaters possibly even commit their own February, raising the obvious question of why. [...] The framework for such cooperation already exists on various fronts where EROs, most notably Kachin, More recently, in early March, the same opportunistic Karen and Ta’ang, have trained, equipped, and approach was adopted at Kani, a town on the mentored affiliated PDFs since the early days of Chindwin River also in Upper Sagaing where PDFs armed resistance to the coup.