Comment 12 for bug 730070

So, deadlocks are a tough problem ...

StarCraft 1 had a similar problem with their pathfinding algorithm: The drones near the base that had to collect the crystals were to many and would constantly get stuck. They solved it by disabling collision for the drones when they are collecting crystals.
Here is the blog post: http://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/the-starcraft-path-finding-hack

Could this hack maybe help here, too?

if(soldiers_stuck_for_too_long()) {
  disable_collision_for_seconds(3);
}

I real sollution would involve a read deadlock detection and resolution ... not so easy.