Let’s say something nice about Joe Kent. I know, it’s difficult. Kent is a Make-America-Great-Again Republican. He agreed with Trump that the Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election, a statement not in Kent’s favor. But in politics, if someone makes a public stand for an issue important to you, and sacrifices his big, important job to say it, you should praise him.
It doesn’t mean you endorse everything about the guy. And what I see with the resignation of Joe Kent is a bleacher full of people who agree with him about this war, but will not stand up to cheer him because he is not on their team.
Joe Kent ran for Congress twice from the 3rd district of Washington and was twice defeated by Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez, a moderate Democrat, because he was too Trumpy. He had an air of soreness and defiance about him. Kent served as an Army Ranger and Green Beret. He was deployed 11 times and was decorated many times for bravery.
In 2019 he lost his wife, Shannon, to a suicide bomber in Syria, which gives him a perspective on the Middle East that most of us don’t have. Kent was loudly against unnecessary wars — a position also taken by Donald Trump. And early in his second term, Trump appointed Joe Kent to be the federal head of counterterrorism.
Kent has now become the first high federal official to resign in protest of Trump’s war on Iran. In his letter of resignation, posted on X, Kent wrote, “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 war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
For blaming Israel, Kent has been accused of antisemitism, but it is not antisemitic as such to criticize the government in Jerusalem. The Washington Post, which is not an antisemitic newspaper, wrote, “Two people familiar with the decision-making, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity, said that Israel began a coordinated effort to pressure the U.S. into striking within the very first weeks after the new Trump administration took office.”
That our government started the war “due to” Israel’s pressure is debatable; it seems to me that it started the war due to the calculations in Donald Trump’s head. But Kent was not wrong in saying there was pressure from Israel, and that Israel has a lobby in the United States. That’s not a conspiracy theory.
Kent is not wrong, either, in stating that this war is being waged in Israel’s interest. Does anyone believe that Iran would drop a nuclear bomb on us? It would seem more likely that they would drop one on Israel, which would be Israel’s problem — but Israel also has nuclear weapons. Nine countries on the planet have nuclear weapons, and only one of them — the United States — has used them in war. And that was 80 years ago.
No American should like the idea of Iran with a nuclear weapon, but going to war every few years is not a long-term solution. Every attack makes Iran’s leaders more desperate to have a nuclear deterrent, and that’s probably what Iran is seeking. Note that Trump has not been threatening war against Russia, China, or North Korea. The US President is nice to them. He bullies Denmark over Greenland and Panama over its canal. He kidnaps the president of Venezuela and blocks their oil going to Cuba. But he leaves Kim Jong Un alone. The leaders of Iran must want what Kim has — membership in the Don’t Tread On Me club. The key to that clubhouse is a nuclear bomb.
Iran’s leaders say they hate Israel because of its domination of the Palestinians. Israel says it has a “right to exist,” while denying the same right to the Palestinians. It is not an honorable position, and it’s not only Iran that says so. Israel needs to make some concessions. If this conflict is to be settled, a homeland needs to be created for the Palestinians.
Joe Kent didn’t say anything about that. Republicans have a blind spot when it comes to the Palestinians, as do some Democrats. I watch CNN, which shows the suffering in Gaza but slides over the Palestinians’ long-term political grievance, which is not news. CNN is much more interested in how much Donald Trump’s war has raised the price of gasoline.
In the midst of all this unseriousness, Joe Kent, the head of the National Counterterrorism Center, has resigned to protest Donald Trump’s war. It’s an adult act, an act of integrity. By itself it won’t stop the war, but it adds to the pressure against it, which is all a guy like Joe Kent can do. People who agree with him should appreciate that.
Sen. Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he disagrees with Kent on many things. “But on this point, he is right,” Warner said. “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.”
Kent’s boss, Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, was another opponent of unnecessary wars appointed by Trump. When Trump started a war with Iran, Gabbard was loudly silent.
Prodded to respond to Kent’s resignation, she released a written statement: “As our Commander in Chief, [Donald Trump] is responsible for determining what is and is not an imminent threat, and whether or not to take action he deems necessary to protect the safety and security of our troops, the American people, and our country.” In other words, going to war was Trump’s decision to make, not hers.
She wants to keep her job. We’ll see how that works out.
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