JAKARTA - The director of the National Counterterrorism Center of the United States, Joseph Kent, resigned on Tuesday by stating his opposition to the ongoing US war in Iran.
"After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today. (After much consideration, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today," said Kent's statement, which was uploaded on his X page on March 17.
"I cannot, in good conscience, support the ongoing war in Iran," Kent wrote, as quoted by Antara.
He argued that Iran did not pose an immediate threat to the US and claimed that the conflict was triggered by external pressure.
Kent, a veteran who said he had been deployed 11 times in combat operations, also touched on personal loss, referring to himself as a "Gold Star husband" after his wife, also a soldier, was killed in a previous war.
"I cannot support sending the next generation to fight and die in a war that provides no benefit to the American people nor is commensurate with the sacrifice of life," he wrote.
He also criticized Israeli officials and a number of American media figures, accusing them of misleading the government and drawing comparisons with the Iraq war.
"... The same tactics that Israel used to drag us into the disastrous Iraq war, which took the lives of thousands of our nation's best sons and daughters. We must not repeat this mistake."
In his message to US President Donald Trump, Kent urged him to change the direction of policy.
"You can reverse course and chart a new path for our country, or let us continue down the path of decline and chaos," he wrote. "The choice is yours."
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