The Trump appointee heading up the National Counterterrorism Center tendered his resignation today, noting in a letter made public on Tuesday that he “cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran.”
“Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” wrote Joe Kent, a former military intelligence and CIA officer and failed MAGA congressional candidate – and 2020 election and Jan. 6 truther – who was a controversial choice to head up the NCTC last year.
So, not a far-left America-hater, despite what you’re likely about to hear from Donald Trump about the guy.
Kent’s letter is scathing in its appraisal of what he called a “misinformation campaign” waged by “high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media” who he wrote “sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran.”
ICYMI
“This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory. This was a lie, and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women. We cannot make this mistake again,” Kent wrote.
“As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times, and as a Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives.
“I pray that you will reflect upon what we are doing in Iran, and who we are doing it for. The time for bold action is now. You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further toward decline and chaos. You hold the cards,” Kent wrote.
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the committee’s former chairman, voted against Kent’s confirmation last summer, but Warner, in a statement on Tuesday, acknowledged that “on this point, he is right: there was no credible evidence of an imminent threat from Iran that would justify rushing the United States into another war of choice in the Middle East.”
“Ignoring the facts to pursue a predetermined war puts American lives at risk and undermines our national security,” Warner said. “The United States cannot be led into conflict on the basis of politics, impulse, or a president’s desire for confrontation. We have seen where this road leads before.”
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Chris Graham
