Want News? Bring a Shovel

'Cuz you're going to have to dig. Here's the Times headline:

"Army Revises Upward Number of Desertions in ’06."

Here's the first paragraph:

"A total of 3,196 active-duty soldiers deserted the Army last year, or 853 more than previously reported, according to revised figures from the Army. The new calculations by the Army, which had about 500,000 active-duty troops at the end of 2006, significantly alter the annual desertion totals since the 2000 fiscal year."

You get the point; War is evil, Bush is bad, troop morale is low, Cheney cooks puppies for lunch at Haliburton headquarters and all that rot, but lets dig a bit deeper in the same story:

Lt. Col. Brian C. Hilferty, an Army spokesman, said the desertion data errors were caused by confusion among employees who tally them. “They were counting things wrong, and doing it inconsistently,” Colonel Hilferty said in an interview. He added, “We are looking at the rise in desertions, but the numbers remain below prewar levels, and retention remains high. So the force is healthy.”

As Scrappleface puts it, "Army Desertions Rise to Near All-Time Average."