{"id":1934,"date":"2026-03-18T08:23:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T08:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1newsnetwork.com\/?p=1934"},"modified":"2026-03-18T08:26:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T08:26:37","slug":"israel-lured-us-into-iran-war-i-quit-trumps-top-official","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/israel-lured-us-into-iran-war-i-quit-trumps-top-official\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Israel lured US into Iran war. I quit&#8217;: Trump&#8217;s top official"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The director of the US National Counterterrorism Centre, Joe Kent, resigned this week citing his opposition to the ongoing US war in Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>\u201cI cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,\u201d Kent wrote in a letter shared on the US social media company X\u2019s platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>He argued that Iran posed no imminent threat to the US and claimed the conflict was primarily driven by pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.<br>Kent, a veteran who said he he had been deployed to combat 11 times, also referenced personal loss, describing himself as a \u201cGold Star husband\u201d whose wife was killed in a previous war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today.<br><br>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\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/prtu86DpEr\">pic.twitter.com\/prtu86DpEr<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joekent16jan19\/status\/2033897242986209689?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 17, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>\u201cI 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,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>He further criticized Israeli officials and some American media figures, accusing them of misleading the administration and drawing parallels with the Iraq war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>\u201cEarly in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>\u201cThis echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and you should strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory,\u201d he said.<br>\u201cThis 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,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Addressing US President Donald Trump directly, Kent urged him to change course.<br>&#8220;You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further toward decline and chaos,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;You hold the cards.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Asked about Kent&#8217;s resignation, Trump told reporters at the White House that he had seen the statement but said: &#8220;I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t know him well, but I thought he seemed like a pretty nice guy. When I read his statement, I realized that it&#8217;s a good thing that he&#8217;s out,&#8221; he said, pointing to Kent&#8217;s comments about Iran not being a threat to the US.<br>&#8220;Every country realized what a threat Iran was,&#8221; Trump added.<br>The White House quickly went on the defensive, accusing Kent of spreading &#8220;false claims&#8221; in his letter.<br>&#8220;President Trump ultimately made the determination that a joint attack with Israel would greatly reduce the risk to American lives that would come from a first strike by the terrorist Iranian regime and address this imminent threat to America\u2019s national security interests,&#8221; spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on X.<br><br>According to The Washington Post, Kent met with Vice President JD Vance at the White House a day before resigning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>He presented his resignation letter during the meeting, while Vance urged him to consult Trump and remain \u201crespectful to POTUS,\u201d a White House official told the Post.<br>A spokesman for Vance was quoted as saying that the vice president \u201cbelieves that it\u2019s imperative for the national security team to remain cohesive, trust one another, and avoid mouthing off to the media about internal deliberations&#8221;. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The director of the US National Counterterrorism Centre, Joe Kent, resigned this week citing his opposition to the ongoing US war in Iran. \u201cI cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,\u201d Kent wrote in a letter shared on the US social media company X\u2019s platform. He argued that Iran posed no imminent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204],"tags":[15,292,291,23,19],"class_list":{"0":"post-1934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-story","8":"tag-israel","9":"tag-joe-kent","10":"tag-olive-news-network","11":"tag-trump","12":"tag-war-crimes"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1934"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1945,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934\/revisions\/1945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}