‘War Should End Now’
Mr. Jones — who is leading a march on Saturday in the South Bay for a victim of gang violence — said it was commendable the president “had a strategy going into the Iraqi War. But he didn’t have a plan for coming out. You really need a plan when you are going into a country where there is nobody you can talk to. We need to pull our troops out now. Not all of them, but most of them. We have been training the Iraqis for four years. We have given them the tools they need. They should be, they need to be, ready by now.” As a matter of self-defense, he said, the main body of the American forces should by summarily withdrawn. One reason is the tactics of the insurgents. “No way you can stop a roadside bomb,” Mr. Jones said. “The best soldiers in the world can’t defend against them. We need to get our soldiers from the United States of America out of there before anymore get killed.” Scoffing at the notion of some war supporters that terrorists merely would follow the U.S. troops home, Mr. Jones countered with the accusation that “the terrorists already are here. They have been here.” He cited Timothy McVeigh, a perpetrator of the Oklahoma City bombing massacre almost 13 years ago.
The Theory of Conspiracy
Mr. Jones also entertains conspiracy theories. He believes “certain air traffic controllers were paid” to be away from their desks on Sept. 11 when the flights of the Muslim terrorists appeared on radar screens. He also said it was “suspicious” that Mr. Bush did not respond immediately to the emergency when he was informed in a Florida classroom on Sept. 11. “The delay by Bush was inappropriate,” Mr. Jones said, because the fleet of airplanes at the NORAD base in the Middle West has been trained to strike anywhere inside the United States within seven minutes. When Mr. Jones was asked if war ever is necessary, he replied: “Wars always are hush-hush. They are arranged behind closed doors by people who are incognito.”
On Saturday at 12 noon, Mr. Jones has called for a demonstration, for the second straight week, to protest the Dec. 15 murder of Cheryl Green. She was a 14-year-old black girl shot to death, police believe, by a Latino gang in what has been classified as a hate crime. Demonstrators will assemble at 20304 S. Harvard Blvd., in front of the Del Amo Market, in the Harbor Gateway section of Torrance. The site is just east of the intersection of Western Avenue and 205th Street. For information: 310.866.7524.
