April 29, 1967.....a date we need to remember..

This was the date Muhammad Ali refused to take the oath to be inducted in the
US military.

Ali, who recently passed away, resisted on religious grounds and after losing his
 livelihood for three years he was exonerated.

At the time I was on the anti-Ali side, believing in supporting my country. I thought
it was opportunistic on his part to leave his Christian faith and embrace Islam at a
time he was called to serve in the military.

But, with age comes awareness if you are open to what is occurring. And what was
occurring in the 1960s was a replay to what occurred in the late 1940s when President
Truman sent Americans into an undeclared war costing 36,000 lives.

And, twenty five years later and another president, Lyndon Johnson, did the same,
not going to Congress for a declaration of war, sending more than one million to
Vietnam, costing even more lives, 58,000 in a second undeclared war.

In retrospect, Muhhammad Ali was right, as I remember him saying,“I Ain't Got No Quarrel 
With The VietCong...No VietCong Ever Called Me Nigger.” 

But, if Ali had no quarrel, why did the United States in either of these undeclared wars, 
Korea or Vietnam?

I know we are in a different time and saw how partisan politics went relentlessly on the
attack towards President George W. Bush for going into Iraq, while young men were
in battle. But at least Bush addressed Congress to make the case.

Back to April 29th.  Imagine if Muhammad Ali was not a fighter, imagine if he was a
lawyer who took President Johnson and the government to court, not on religious grounds
but on the legality of sending more than one million men into battle.

We know such a charge would probably wind up before the Supreme Court, but can only
guess the outcome.

Maybe this would be a time for a serious discussion of how much power a president should
have without the support of the American people, through the Congress.

No one wants to see politicians send our military into battle as Truman, Johnson, and
even Bush to a small extent did without a formal declaration.

Muhammad Ali when asked what his legacy would be, he said his children. Perhaps given
deeper thought he might have added never sending Americans into battle in undeclared wars.

The story:
http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/apr/29/muhammad-ali-refuses-to-fight-in-vietnam-war-1967



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