This word is acceptable for play in the US & UK dictionaries that are being used in the following games:

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n. Plural form of desertion.

"The sectarian violence that alarmists keep wanting to call a "civil war" is anything but; there have been no large-scale desertions from the standing army to the "other side", as in a real civil war, and there is no one credibly claiming to be the legitimate government of Iraq, except the one in place which was democratically elected."

assertions    exertions