WASHINGTON - Joe Kent, director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, announced on social media Tuesday that he has decided to resign from his position, noting 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," Kent wrote in a post on X.
In his letter to US President Donald Trump, Kent said that early 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."
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Kent said that he 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."
Since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on Feb 28, at least 13 American service members have been killed. Ten others have been seriously wounded and about 200 injured, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal on Friday.
The resignation of a top US counterterrorism official signals mounting pressure on the Trump administration over the Iran war, amid intensifying criticism from Democratic lawmakers, business leaders, and even segments of his own support base.
"Donald Trump created a mess in the Middle East, and he clearly has no plan for how to end it," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, wrote on X Monday.
According to a recent poll from Quinnipiac University, 53 percent of voters oppose the US military action against Iran, while 40 percent support it. There is a high level of partisan division: Some 89 percent of Democrats and 60 percent of Independents oppose the US military action against Iran, while 85 percent of Republicans support it.
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Despite overall strong Republican support, Trump's actions are facing growing skepticism and criticism from some Republicans, even triggering a backlash among some supporters in the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, once a vocal Trump supporter who in recent months broke with the president and resigned from her post in January, said in a post on X after the war broke out that "War with Iran is AMERICA LAST and we voted against it."
Conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson, who has millions of followers and is highly influential among Trump's MAGA base, has also recently come out strongly against the war.
