Where he made his mistake is that he said he would only fight in a war declared by Allah or the Messenger. To be exempt as a CO, you must believe in no wars. His was a religious stand based on spurious logic. That said, those of us who were drafted during that volatile time had mixed (but not) stong feelings about what he did. Most of us were more concerned about getting out in one piece than worrying about what a boxer did, Hindsight is 20/20 vision. I give this a treatment in my forthcoming book if I can ever get it to print. The plain fact is if he had been drafted, his risk-Reward equation would have been nil, as he would have fought exhibitions ala Joe Louis during WW TWO.