Nearly 20,000 soldiers have deserted in the last seven months, most of them in the last month. The number of deserters grows daily. The recent death of Libyan dictator Kaddafi did not help morale for the government, or its troops.
That many? Is that a reliable number or one drawn from dissidents? Still, even if the number is off, it is probably more reliable to say that more are deserting lately.
Not that this affects the loyal forces involved in killing and terrorizing the population. Not immediately. These 100,000 plus foreign bully boys seem ready to keep killing. The question is whether the trickle of desertions unleashes a flood of revolts. The regime can stand the trickle of low-ranking soldiers deserting from units that aren't even trusted to put down the protests and budding revolts around Syria. They are still too few to really hold ground for long when the loyalists attack.
The problem is if the trickle either reaches a flood or if the trickle seeps upward to infect officers who might either take their entire unit into revolt or simply desert and then help organize and lead the lower level defectors.
Plus, the trickle of defectors has to bolster protester morale as the regime continues to kill and arrest them. Assad could still break the protests. But the trend seems to be against him right now.
