Os Cangaceiros
5th May 2013, 00:51
Pretty interesting group. I've known about them for a while but was just bored and got to reading more about them. The Wikipedia article on them is pretty crazy...they were by far one of the most militarily advanced nat-lib movements. Also one of the most deranged...they committed a number of acts which were war crimes by pretty much any definition, including ethnic cleansing and various other unpleasantries.
What's also interesting is they seemed to serve as a kind of client organization for a number of different oppositional groups, including the Naxalites, the PKK & al-Qaeda. But it seems that their downfall was ultimately the downfall of many groups, and that's the very tempting urge to try and turn a insurgent guerrilla organization into a conventional military force, which almost always ends in defeat because that eliminates the strengths of a guerrilla organization and amplifies it's weaknesses, ie it's inability to hold territory against the concentrated might of the state.
That's just my interpretation anyway, based on very limited knowledge. Anyway, any good readings about this group and what's the current situation vis-à-vis Tamil nationalism in Sri Lanka?
What's also interesting is they seemed to serve as a kind of client organization for a number of different oppositional groups, including the Naxalites, the PKK & al-Qaeda. But it seems that their downfall was ultimately the downfall of many groups, and that's the very tempting urge to try and turn a insurgent guerrilla organization into a conventional military force, which almost always ends in defeat because that eliminates the strengths of a guerrilla organization and amplifies it's weaknesses, ie it's inability to hold territory against the concentrated might of the state.
That's just my interpretation anyway, based on very limited knowledge. Anyway, any good readings about this group and what's the current situation vis-à-vis Tamil nationalism in Sri Lanka?