Some time back we had an article about military deserters. Desertion is a troubling topic, more so in a volunteer military, and even more so when that military is involved in two wars at once, and obviously gearing up for a third conflict.

The topic is back again, with a story at the online English version of Der Spiegel.

When he goes underground, he won't tell his mom. "John," a rangy young soldier with arresting eyebrows, has planned each step carefully. He will spend his leave from an Army base in Germany at home in the northeastern United States, snowboarding, visiting friends, and hanging out with his teenage siblings.

Then he'll disappear. When the military police call his mother and stepfather, the hard-line Bush supporters will be able to say honestly that they don't know where their son is.

Last weekend, shortly before his return to the States, John let DER SPIEGEL in on his plan over cocoa and ham sandwiches in a Berlin cafe. He is one of a growing number of American service members now going AWOL (absent without leave) from units stationed overseas. Though the US Department of Defense does not keep figures on such cases, a strong indication of their frequency is the number who receive "Chapter 11" discharges through Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and Fort Knox, Kentucky, the main processing centers for those who go missing overseas and turn themselves in, or are arrested, back home. Between October 2002 and September 2005, the two made an annual average of 1,546 such discharges. Last year the number grew to 1,988, or more than five per day.

That’s only an increase of 440 in 2006. 1,988 is a demi-brigade. But it’s a steady, constant, ongoing drip, and represents only those who turn themselves in. Troops notice the empty bunks. AWOL happens, but after 30 days continuous absence, with no contact from the soldier it is officially considered desertion. Those left behind might shake their heads in disappointment and disgust, or they might nod understandingly.

Officially, punishment for military desertion can range from an "other than honorable" discharge -- a bureaucratic slap on the wrist that may involve a cut in benefits -- to death by firing squad. In practice, many soldiers who go AWOL overseas follow the advice of the Army's deserter hotline and quietly turn themselves in to Ft. Sill or Ft. Knox. Ft. Knox spokeswoman Gini Sinclair says most of the 14,000-plus troops who have been processed through the two centers since the invasion of Afghanistan were discharged within two weeks.

Notice that the official spokeswoman says that in five and one-half years over 14,000 have been administratively separated after desertion. It’s a far greater figure than listed above, and works out to 2,545 soldiers a year. A brigade. The difference apparently represents those deserting from posts within the US.

Deciding to turn your back of your friends, family, and country is a traumatic step for a young man to take. During the Viet Nam era many did this, and at the time the assumption was that you were leaving them all behind forever. There would be no more Thanksgiving dinners with the relatives, no early morning cries of delight from younger siblings at the Christmas tree. No more of Mom’s home made birthday cakes. At the time no one expected that an official amnesty would be granted. The bitter scars of that conflict tore the country apart, and even the amnesty was bitterly contested by some.

Will some future President excuse those who are walking away from Mr Bu$h’s ego-wars?

Sgt Bob Evers, a 37 year old Nebraskan, had 14 years combined service in the Navy and the Army. Serving in Kosovo, he noted how the local populace welcomed American troops.

"It was what I thought being in the military was all about," he says; one home he visited had photos of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair on the wall.

He found the Sunni Triangle a shocking difference.

No one wanted Evers's men there, and he could see why. Escorting oil trucks up and down roads where families lack electricity and water, "you're doing more harm than good," he says, "and to me that stings."

The son and grandson of military men, Evers joined up to defend his Constitution. Initially, he supported the invasion of Iraq. Before the United Nations, US Secretary of State Colin Powell had staked his reputation on the claim that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Evers admired the statesman, "and I thought, if Colin Powell said it, it's good enough for me."

Wounded in November 2004, SGT Evers made his decision to leave after reading a book in the hospital. After cautiously speaking of his changed feelings about the American mission with friends, a sympathetic commander eased his way out of the Army.

The book Evers read was a biography of General Ludwig Beck, former Chief of Staff of the German Army, killed in the wake of the April 20th bomb attack on Adolph Hitler. Evers says the quite that changed his mind was "A soldier's duty ends where his knowledge, conscience, and responsibility forbid him to follow a command"

Once upon a time the US Army taught this rule.