MYANMAR BORDER, Thailand -- The sudden escalation of Myanmar's civil war, with coordinated resistance attacks across the country's northeast, has shaken the military establishment and reenergized pro-democracy forces. Rare interviews with wives of serving soldiers reveal that the grip of the dictatorship may be as shaky in its bases, away from the front lines, where anxiety is deepening among military families.
In what opposition forces term "Operation 1027," named for the date it began in late October, key resistance groups overran army positions in northern Myanmar, seizing control of two border trading posts with China. In unprecedented joint operations between various ethnic armed groups and guerrilla-style people's defense forces, they moved on to take more than 150 military posts as well as government facilities in Shan state.
