Free Republic

One of the most vivid lectures I remember from studying the Russian Revolution during my junior year abroad at St. Antony's College, at Oxford, was the one on what sealed the tsar of Russia's fate.  My superb tutor and lecturer, Dr. Harold Shukman, said it was the scene in St. Petersburg, where the rather insufficiently studied photos of the era showed thousands of troops, thousands, hanging around, idle, doing nothing.  They were deserters, and their choice to walk away showed the extent of just how far the tsar was gone as a force of government.  This scene became the tinder and backdrop...

Cuban sports officials were stunned Thursday by the desertions of up to seven soccer players in Florida. Still, the under-23 team will play on. The Cuban team will play Honduras on Thursday night in Tampa, Fla. It's Cuba's second game in a qualifying tournament for the Beijing Olympics, sponsored by the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football, or CONCACAF. The Cuban delegation notified CONCACAF on Thursday that the team will continue to participate, CONCACAF general secretary Chuck Blazer said in a statement. The players, who had not yet reported to authorities, went missing after Cuba tied the...

"Army desertion rate up 80 percent since '03 Iraq invasion," blared The Associated Press headline atop an article that began, "Soldiers strained by six years at war are deserting their posts at the highest rate since 1980." Sounds pretty bad until one puts 80 percent in context, which the AP didn't try to do, except to frame it to support its premise: Desertions "declined in 2003 and 2004, in the early years of the Iraq war, but then began to increase steadily," reaching "about nine in every 1,000 soldiers" in the year ending Sept. 30. As journalists are wont to...

Amman, Iraq Press, July 21, 2002 – The Iraqi army command has cancelled leaves as tension mounts in the country over a possible U.S. military attack. Informed sources told Iraq Press that the army has suspended regular military leaves and declared a state of high alert. Meantime, military police units which pursue deserters have carried out spot searches of residential areas in Baghdad amid reports of a substantial increase in army desertion rates despite a presidential pardon. Residents say the police have set up checkpoints at Baghdad's main interjections and highways leading to the capital. The campaign coincides with an...