Ali, boma ye (kill him)! What the U.S. and George Foreman have in common

By Todd Lederman

George Foreman may have been the most powerful boxer ever. At over six feet three inches, 220 pounds of nearly solid muscle, he dominated inferior opponents. Had he been from a different era, many boxing enthusiasts believe he would have defeated Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, Evander Hollyfield, or Rocky Marciano. He would have annihilated “Iron” Mike Tyson. Foreman shocked with overwhelming force. He was a giant. Awe inspiring. On October 29, 1974 he was the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Unbeatable.

On October 30, Muhammad Ali knocked him out in the 8th round. The African crowd shouted “Ali, boma ye!”

Ali, the greatest heavyweight boxer ever, but not the most powerful, defeated Foreman with asymmetric tactics. He later called it “rope-a-dope.” In the first round, Muhammad Ali headed straight for the champion and scored with a right hand lead, clearly surprising Foreman, but failing to knock him out. Most boxing enthusiasts expected Foreman’s brutal retaliation would quickly dispatch the contender. Ali had different plans. He employed a strategy that enabled him to take advantage of the young champion’s weakness: staying power, or lack thereof. Foreman had won 37 of his 40 bouts by knockout, most within three rounds. He had become so dominating that his most recent eight battles had all lasted less then two rounds. Ali believed he could outlast Foreman.

In the second round, the contender retreated to the ropes. He invited Foreman to hit him repeatedly, while counterpunching and verbally taunting the champ. He enraged Foreman, but absorbed the champ’s best blows. Through six rounds, Ali took hundreds of punches, but few to the head, and none were able to deliver the knockout Foreman needed. By the seventh round, Foreman had wasted his strength. He threw lifeless, wide shots to Ali's body, while Ali countered with stinging punches straight to Foreman’s head. In the eighth round, Ali dropped Foreman with combination punches at center ring. Foreman failed to make the count. Against all odds, Ali had knocked out the most powerful heavyweight boxer of all time. His tactic of leaning on the ropes, covering up, and absorbing ineffective body shots had worn out the champ. Ali had roped the dope.

Our nation, the United States of America, the most powerful country in history, a republic empowered with the military and technological capability of snuffing the life out of every human on Earth, is locked in a struggle with an inferior foe: Al Qaeda. And we have our enemies on the ropes.

In the first round, Mohamed Atta and eighteen other thugs hijacked four jets. They flew two planes into the World Trade Center in New York City. One jet smashed into the Pentagon and the last plunged into a field in rural Pennsylvania. Al Qaeda murdered nearly three thousand people that day. These people came from all demographic groups: men, women, children, Caucasian, African, European, Asian, atheists, Buddhists, Christians, Jews, and Muslims. These acts, of course, horrified people all over the world. Our country enjoyed the sympathy of billions. Few people or countries were surprised when United States forces invaded Afghanistan. Most nations supported our right to use military force, and many people, including President George W. Bush, expected his troops would quickly dispatch with Al-Qaeda. Our enemies had different plans.

Those of us opposed to Al-Qaeda would do well to always keep in mind that our enemies expected us to retaliate. They probably hoped, even prayed the United States would respond with all its might.

In the second round, after failing to completely knock out Al-Qaeda or Osama Bin Laden—the man our president identified as our number-one enemy—we have merely managed to force them into caves. They wait, taking blows to the body, but never to the head, while we waste our resources: human, natural, and financial.

President Bush convinced U.S. citizens and Congress that Al-Qaeda had been supported by Iraq and Saddam Hussein, who was developing weapons of mass destruction: “nucular” (sic), chemical, and biological. The bell rang for round three. We invaded Iraq, aiming widely misguided blows to the body of Al-Qaeda while the head rested and regrouped in caves--in Pakistan, not Iraq.

Or to use a different simile, the methods our country has been using to fight terror are like putting out fire with gasoline—and we keep buying the fuel from our enemies. From oil profits, Saudi royal family members send billions of dollars annually to finance madrasas, schools in which the next generation of terrorists are taught that the greatest achievement in life is to kill infidels (1). A still-greater aspiration is to die in the process, thereby assuring an eternal afterlife spent in paradise with ‘black-eyed’ maidens.

Daily headlines of Al Jazeera fuel terrorist recruitment. Every damaging report—of U.S. soldiers killing Muslims, contractors such as Blackwater USA allegedly murdering Muslim civilians, or allegations that President Bush lied to justify the invasion of Iraq (2)—rallies new terrorists to jihad.

Of course, the Qur’an does not truly state, or even imply, that suicide-murderers will be rewarded in paradise with 72 virgins (3). Unfortunately, truth is a casualty of faith. September 11 hijackers carried a copy of a letter instructing them to “Be joyful, happy, open of heart, and at peace because you are carrying out an act that God loves, an act that pleases Him. And therefore there will be a day, by God’s leave, when you will be with the bright-eyed maidens of Paradise.” (4)

Imams and scholars instruct millions of little children to hate, just as they taught those 19 terrorists to murder infidels. They fail to teach critical thinking skills. Many do not even teach their students to read or write.

Imagine students debating the meaning of a religious passage they cannot read. Granted, many westerners learned everything they know about Moses from Charlton Heston. Nevertheless, if we wanted to know more, we could read the Old Testament ourselves. A generation of illiterate Muslims is growing up filled with complete faith in the knowledge that they’ll eternally frolic with maidens after a life of killing non believers.

Worse still, the definition of non believers has inflated to include those Muslims who disagree with the notion of suicide-murdering, putting fear into the hearts of Islamists who would be our friends and allies. Islamic leaders are befuddled. If they denounce terrorist activities—such as Hamas firing rockets into Israeli cities—they risk uprisings against their own governments. So they denounce Israel’s military response instead.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes in Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and elsewhere, Islamic leaders continue to investigate terrorists clandestinely, as they should—as we should.

In our need for dramatic rhetoric, our country seems to miss the mark frequently. We send troops to Vietnam and call that a ‘police action’, but we wage a ‘war on drugs’ and a ‘war on terrorism’. Military action, at best, only served to make us feel better. At worst, which is what we’ve experienced in the past six years, war has succeeded in aiding our enemies. War has advanced their recruiting efforts, paid to indoctrinate the next generation of terrorists, while nearly bankrupting our country. This is ‘Rope a dope’, and our country is the dope.

Imagine what we could do with the $1 trillion we’ve already spent on two wars. That’s almost enough money to rescue the credit markets. Analysts estimate the efforts we’ve already spent in Iraq and Afghanistan will cost another $1 trillion in veteran’s benefits. That money would indeed be enough to finish bailing out banks.

Alas, when Barack Obama becomes president, he says he plans to divert troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. I agree we need a presence in Afghanistan. However, that presence should be invisible, removing from Al-Qaeda’s recruiting posters, and web sites, the image of U.S. armored carriers rolling through the streets of middle eastern cities. Our presence should be covert, employing the type of operations that used to be carried out by the CIA in the days when they relied on people, not just technology, to provide information about our enemies.

In Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere, we also should employ the type of investigative techniques used by the FBI. Secretly, silently, invisibly, we should be looking for any and all terrorists who would be enemies of the United States. We should find them, apprehend them, and give them fair trials. In other words, we should be waging a police action against terrorists. Then we should take the money we’re saving by not waging war and, well, borrow a little less from China and Saudi Arabia.

By the way, back in September of 2001, why do you suppose we gave Osama Bin Laden a 26-day head start?

Note: My apology to Muhammad Ali for using an analogy that puts him in the same position as Al Qaeda. I have the greatest admiration for Ali, have been a huge fan throughout his career, and mean no disrespect. I simply could not ignore the similarity between ‘rope a dope’ and the way in which an almost powerless Al Qaeda so deftly provoked a ridiculous overreaction from the United States.

Copyright by Todd Lederman, 2008

1. Mortenson, G. and Relin, D. O. (2006). Three Cups of Tea. Viking Press: USA. ISBN 978-0670034826.
2. Suskind, R. (2008). The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism. HarperCollins: USA. ISBN 978-0061430626.
3. Feldner, Y. (October 30, 2001). ‘72 Black Eyed Virgins’: A Muslim Debate on the Rewards of Martyrs. The Middle East Media Research Institute: Washington , D.C. Retrieved online 12/31/2008: http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Area=ia&ID=IA7401#_edn25.
4. Mueller, E. (2001). Translation of the letter believed to have been written by Mohammed Atta. David Irving’s Action Report. Retrieved online 12/31/2008: http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/01/11/WTC_Atta_Letter.html