Desertion means abandoning the battle, somehow evading combat, moving away from the raging fighting, and fleeing before the military police catch you and shoot you in the back, making you pay for your cowardice.

I sing the praises of this behavior.

It is the only behavior I consider ethically acceptable and strategically rational: flight, abandonment, withdrawal, desertion.

I didn't always maintain that fleeing the battlefield was appropriate. For many years, I considered it necessary to take a stand, to oppose, to commit oneself, and to fight against the exploiters, and even, if necessary, to take up arms to defend oneself against the aggressors.