Fight or flee? Myanmar conscription creates hard choices

More than three years after overthrowing an elected government, Myanmar’s military still can’t solidify control of the country. Its troops are under fire from the hinterlands to the cities. Armed revolutionaries, fighting to topple the unpopular regime and restore civilian rule, have incapacitated an estimated one-fifth of the military’s combat troops, according to the US Institute for Peace. The military is now conscripting civilians — a tactic that Myanmar’s population has long dreaded.