My Tribute to Muhammad Ali

I would like to pay my respects to the late Muhammad Ali with this tribute. Ali lived a full life. He was the greatest boxer of all time but he fought and won the most important battle of his life without throwing a single punch. 

I am referring to when he was drafted to participate in the Vietnam war in 1967. For refusing to go to Vietnam, Ali was immediately stripped of heavyweight title, convicted of draft evasion and sentenced to 5 years in prison, fined $10,000 and was barred from boxing for 3 years. In refusing to be inducted into the US Army, Ali said, to paraphrase him..., "I have nothing against the Vietcong. They never called me nigger. They never enslaved my ancestors, neither did they lynch us or hang us from trees. I have nothing against those people and so I will not let a white man to order me to go kill a yellow man, with whom I have no quarrel with. I would rather die than dishonor the teachings of Allah by going to kill innocent people." 

Ali's comments shocked the nation but he stayed true to his convictions. He kept his honor. But more importantly, his refusal to go to Vietnam took away legitimacy from the war. His actions turned out to be the biggest blow to the US government's PR stunt to deceive Americans into supporting the war. The government had lied to the good American people that the US was fighting for freedom in Vietnam. But the reality was that Gen. William Westmoreland, the general in charge of the US effort in Vietnam, was pursuing a genocidal war of attrition, with the goal of killing as many North Vietnamese as possible using deadly incendiary bombs such as napalm and chemical weapons such as agent orange. 

Ali's refusal and growing antiwar sentiment, eventually led to public outcry when images of innocent people burnt to death by napalm bombs started showing up on US media. Once the American people realized the evil their government was perpetrating in Vietnam, they protested the US presence there. Ultimately the forces of good prevailed when Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese forces under the leadership of Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap and the US military finally pulled out. 

Such was the character, greatness and conviction of Muhammad Ali. He truly is the greatest of all time.May he rest in eternal peace.