US Counterterrorism Chief Resigns, Says Iran War Echoes 'Disastrous' Iraq War
New Delhi: US National Counterterrorism Center Director, Joe Kent, has announced his resignation, saying he “cannot in good conscience” back the country’s war in Iran. Kent said on X that Iran “posed no imminent threat” to the US, and that it was clear that the war on Iran was launched under pressure from Israel and its “powerful American lobby”.
Kent said “high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media” pushed a “misinformation campaign” through an “echo chamber” that was “used to deceive you [US President Donald Trump] into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat”.
He said the notion that attacking Iran when the US did, in late February, would lead to a swift victory over Iran was a “lie” too. According to Kent's resignation – addressed to Trump – this idea of a short campaign in Iran was an Israeli tactic, previously used to draw the 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, he wrote in the letter. Here is his post on X:
After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today.
I 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… pic.twitter.com/prtu86DpEr
— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) March 17, 2026
Meanwhile, AP reports that Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson took issue with Kent over his statements.
“I got all the briefings. We all understood that there was clearly an imminent threat that Iran was very close to the enrichment of nuclear capability and they were building missiles at a pace no one in the region could keep up with,” said Johnson, who was asked about Kent’s resignation at a press conference Tuesday morning.
Johnson said he was convinced that if the president had waited “we would have mass casualties of Americans, service members and others, and our installation would have been dramatically damaged”.
Days after launching the war, Trump administration officials told congressional staff in private briefings that US intelligence did not suggest Iran was preparing to launch a preemptive strike against the US.
White House is mum so far on resignation
A spokesperson for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also did not immediately respond to questions about the resignation of Kent, AP reports.
Before entering Trump’s administration, Kent ran two unsuccessful campaigns for Congress in Washington state. He also served in the military, seeing 11 deployments as a Green Beret, followed by work at the CIA.
Here is how Kent had reported his appointment by Trump last year in February, also in an X post:
Thank you President Trump!
It’s an honor to serve our nation again, time to keep our nation safe & strong! pic.twitter.com/yxyknrTTMN
— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) February 4, 2025
Democrats strongly opposed Kent’s confirmation, pointing to his past promotion of conspiracy theories and ties to far-right figures including Graham Jorgensen, a member of the far-right military group the Proud Boys, and Joey Gibson, the founder of the Christian nationalist group Patriot Prayer.
Democrats also grilled Kent on his participation in a group chat on Signal that was used by Trump’s national security team to discuss sensitive military plans.
In another X post on March 1, a day into the US-Israel war on Iran, Kent had referred to the need for Americans to be vigilant and warned about “thousands of individuals with terrorist ties” who, he said, had entered the US due to the previous Joe Biden administration’s border policies. That was his last post on X before his Monday resignation.
As the Iran conflict continues to unfold, @ODNIGov’s National Counterterrorism Center is engaged and operating at full capacity, 24/7. We are tracking developments in real time, assessing any potential risks to the homeland, identifying emerging threats, and providing timely,…
— NCTC Director Joe Kent (@NCTCKent) February 28, 2026
(With inputs from AP)
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