Mugger: Bring Back the Draft?: A Middle-Aged Timesman is Gung Ho.

Do we really need the second coming of Father James Fallows mucking up magazines? . Fallows, the self-appointed conscience of the media, attracted attention years ago when he bared his soul in print about the belated guilt he felt at not serving in Vietnam. Safe at Harvard as a youth, Fallows recalled seeing middle- and lower-class Bostonians of his age lining up at bus stations on the way to boot camp, unable to escape the draft as he and his fellow intellectuals had.

In Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, James Traub, nearing 50, duplicated Fallows’ tortured confession and endorsed Rep. Charlie Rangel’s race-baiting legislation for the return of mandatory conscription. Never mind that Def. Sec. Donald Rumsfeld, among others, scoffs at the idea, arguing that the all-volunteer forces are far more effective because the men and women made a conscious choice to join the military and aren’t distracted or demoralized by those, as in Vietnam, who were forced into service.

Unlike Fallows, at least Traub didn’t have to pull strings to avoid that war. Like myself, he received a draft card in 1973, although it was just another form of identification after Richard Nixon opted for an all-volunteer military. But now, in his middle-aged contemplation, the Times contributor believes Rangel’s gambit (which attracted just 11 co-sponsors) is simply dandy. Not that Traub himself has temporarily abandoned his career to offer his talents to Tom Ridge.

He writes: "[T]he ultimate justification for conscription must be moral... [A] truly democratic draft might also, as Rangel suggests, alter the strategic calculus: if the children of journalists, legislators and policy experts were called to military service, we might do a more thorough, and a more honest, job of deciding exactly what it is that’s worth fighting for... [I]t’s true that we live in a genuinely threatening world; that is, alas, the very reason that military service, or at least some kind of service, should be mandatory, rather than a matter of individual conscience or marketplace choice."

Traub’s logic doesn’t survive even cursory scrutiny. Currently, there’s hardly a consensus among journalists, legislators and policy experts about the imminent invasion of Iraq. Sen. John McCain, a hawk, doesn’t favor the draft. Most mainstream journalists, if only because they detest George W. Bush (or his policies), are antiwar. As for the Democratic presidential candidates, forget it. Supporting Rangel’s half-baked idea isn’t likely to win the youth vote.

Obviously, Traub is aiming at conservative advocates of Bush’s visionary foreign policy, believing that pundits like the Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes (who has draft-age children) or Republican congressmen with either kids or grandkids would be "more honest" about today’s global crisis if their kin faced danger. I don’t believe this is true. Does Traub really think Bush’s goals would be different if his draft-age twin daughters were required to perform public service? And I doubt Hillary Clinton’s calculated position on Iraq would change if her daughter Chelsea was eligible for a draft.

Traub’s essay is Bush-bashing dressed up as a "think" piece. In the Times Magazine of Jan. 14, 2001, his Florida recount bitterness was noisy from the get-go. Writing about the second debate between the president-elect and Al Gore, Traub said: "After a brief, failed attempt to get Bush to concede that he would not necessarily intervene abroad even to prevent genocide, Gore essentially gave up trying to draw sharp distinctions with his opponent, apparently reasoning that deploying his immensely superior knowledge of the world might seem pedantic rather than seasoned. (Bush was held to have won the debate after successfully reciting the names of four large Middle Eastern countries.)...

"The core issue is not whether Bush is smart enough to grasp the nuances of a complex world—he has smart advisers for that—but whether he cares enough."

In fairness, Traub’s dismissive pre-inauguration piece was written pre-9/11, but now that Bush is a foreign-policy president, he implied last Sunday that the United States is rushing recklessly into combat overseas. Traub might’ve received a hearty handshake from Howell Raines for his goofy essay—maybe even an invitation to have a cocktail with the boss—but a man should listen to his wife. "I have a 12-year-old son," Traub writes. "The idea that in six or seven years Alex might be drafted is a little bit comical [huh?], but mostly appalling. My wife thinks I’m crazy even to suggest the idea." She’s right, Mr. Traub: You’re certifiable.

Scummy Trial Lawyers Part XXXII

It would be quite possible to fill a newspaper column each week with the latest travesties of trial lawyers. One of the most cynical potential lawsuits—it was inevitable—involves the sad case of 23-year-old Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler, who died on Feb. 17 of heatstroke, leaving behind a pregnant widow. Bechler, an overweight young man struggling to make the team who used an over-the-counter diet supplement containing ephedra, had a medical history, according to medical examiner Joshua Perper, that included an enlarged heart, slight hypertension, a liver abnormality and borderline high blood pressure.

The bottle of Xenadrine RFA-1 which was found in Bechler’s locker afterwards has on its label a warning that consumers should consult a physician before using the product "if [y]ou are at risk, or have a family history of, or are being treated for heart disease, high blood pressure, recurrent headaches, liver, thyroid or psychiatric disease."

Enter White Plains, NY, attorney David Meiselman, who last week, according to the Washington Post, said he planned to file suit against Cytodyne Technologies, the manufacturer of the herbal supplement Bechler used. Meiselman, who didn’t reveal if he was working on a pro-bono basis on behalf of Mrs. Bechler—fat chance—said: "Our position very clearly is that Steve Bechler is dead, and that ephedra killed him. We intend to get this product off the market shelves and put the manufacturer out of business... I am all for free enterprise, but a company that knowingly sells a product that kills people is no longer entrepreneurial, but predatory."

This man ought to be disbarred. Like any number of legal drugs that are advertised nightly on tv that state the possible consequences of using the product, Xenadrine RFA-I also complied with FDA regulations by posting potential side effects on its bottle of tablets. Meiselman, who hasn’t yet put a dollar amount on the possible lawsuit, also said he "has not considered whether he believes the Orioles are also liable for Bechler’s death, saying the team has ‘handled everything in the way we would want it to be handled.’"

It would be ironic if this New York lawyer, involving himself in an accidental death that occurred in Florida, did include the Orioles in litigation, since the team’s owner, Peter Angelos, has made a fortune in the very same line of work.

The Baltimore Sun’s Mike Preston has Meiselman’s number. He wrote on Feb. 28: "We live in a finger-pointing world. People want to blame McDonald’s because they are obese. Lung cancer victims sue tobacco companies because they couldn’t break the habit. A coal miner wins a multimillion-dollar suit against his company despite working there 20 years and knowing the risk of developing black lung disease.

"Sometimes, we just need to look in the mirror.

"Since Bechler, 23, collapsed on an Orioles practice field on Feb. 16 and died of heatstroke the next morning, we’ve heard about possible litigation against Major League Baseball, the players union and even the Orioles, but none of them is to blame. Bechler’s death should be linked to Bechler himself."

Clear the Newsrooms

Despite the recent "downsizing" of large media companies, there’s little doubt that the majority of newspapers and magazines could trim their editorial staffs by 33 percent and no one would be the wiser. You have to wonder why the New York Times, for example, has so many errors in its pages every day when the newsroom’s roster is larger than the armed forces of Cameroon. Similarly, as I’ve noted before, it’s a joke when you read a 300-word blurb in Time or Newsweek, and at the bottom, four reporters are given credit for either writing, researching or reporting the story.

Last Friday, the New York Post’s Keith Kelly ran an hilarious item about a fellow named George Peper who left Time, Inc.’s Golf Magazine last year and wound up as an editor-at-large for the rival Links. Peper’s first piece at his new position begins with what has to be construed as a sour-grapes shot at his former publication: "[A]lthough I loved working at Golf Magazine all those years, I had absolutely no affinity for the publication... I edited Golf Magazine, but I didn’t read it. It just didn’t stir me. This magazine [Links] does."

But then the truth serum really kicks in, as Peper says the only complaint about his current job is his title. "I’ve just left a company," he writes, "Time Inc., that’s really big on Editors-at-Large. At any moment, skulking up and down the corridors of Time, People, Money, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune are half a dozen of these characters. Generally, they’re long-in-the-tooth types who’ve lost the hop on their editorial fastballs. Whether out of benevolence or fear of litigation, the company keeps them around, forgotten but not gone. They earn humongous salaries and do relatively little. It’s a great gig, if you can stand the blank wall."

My friend Richard Parsons, CEO of AOLTimeWarner, has more serious problems to keep him awake at night, but he might clip Peper’s note from Links, and keep it in his wallet for ammo the next time an editor at his company—who doesn’t pay the bills—lobbies for extra staff, which will occur once the economy rebounds. In fact, a mass house-cleaning at the conglomerate’s magazines would probably go a long way in reassuring investors that Parsons is serious about trimming the fat, both literally and figuratively, at his bloated organization.

Send comments to [MUG1988@aol.com](mailto:MUG1988@aol.com).