Real-life(ish) morality/ethics - reservists & employers

[The Third Man]

Here's something loosely based on a real-life scenario I encountered this week.

We've had threads regarding reservists (and full-time military) who want to get out of the Iraq deployment obligations they suddenly find themselves faced with. Such people generally get roundly condemned. Here's a slight twist on the subject:

Suppose we have a guy, who is a member of the TA (UK territorial army, a kind of reservist). He's facing a deployment to Iraq, about which he is ambivalent - he'll go if he's ordered, but obviously he (and his wife) wouldn't be unhappy if, for whatever external reason, he doesn't get called to go.

So. You're the guys managing director. Say he's fairly senior and important to your business, but - by the maxim "no-one is indispensable" - you could, at a pinch, and at some cost and damage to the company, do without his services for the time of his deployment. The government will, as is the law, compensate you for his salary whilst he is deployed.

Now, although it's possible (at some cost, remember) for you to operate without the guy, it is also perfectly possible for you as MD to reach into your arse and pull out enough justifications to show that he is indespensable to your business, and therefore shouldn't be deployed.

What to do? Is it unpatriotic or treasonous for a third-party to blag someone out of his deployment obligations? Should your own personal view of the morality or legality of the Iraq war factor in? Is it OK to lie to the government in this matter, as some would say the government lied to us about starting the war? As MD, should you put the effectiveness of your company before the effectiveness of the governments forces in Iraq?

[Kazuaki Shimazaki]

What to do? Is it unpatriotic or treasonous for a third-party to blag someone out of his deployment obligations? Should your own personal view of the morality or legality of the Iraq war factor in? Is it OK to lie to the government in this matter, as some would say the government lied to us about starting the war? As MD, should you put the effectiveness of your company before the effectiveness of the governments forces in Iraq?

Yes, it is perfectly OK to evaluate the Iraq War. It is a total waste. Therefore, even if it is some clerk, if I can write a few papers to get him out of something so stupid and wasteful and hazardous, I'd write them. They serve you. You serve them - something too many government leaders forget.

As for patriotism, true patriotism is not doing what the Party says (something that Soviet political officers seem to keep forgetting). It is about doing good for the People and the State. Not letting him go to that idiocy is probably for the good of the People and the State, thus it is patriotic.

To be fair, I am not that patriotic a person, but I think this will fit.