US National Counterterrorism Center director resigns over war in Iran. “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.”
Kent enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 17, completed Airborne School and the Ranger Indoctrination Program (RIP) serving in the 75th Ranger Batallion. He then earned his Green Beret as a Special Forces Weapons Sergeant in 2003 after arriving at the qualification course just days after the 9/11 attacks.
Over 20 years, he rose through the ranks to become a Warrant Officer and was selected for a Special Missions Unit—an elite tier-one designation comparable to Delta Force—deploying across Iraq and Yemen.
He deployed on 11 combat missions primarily in Iraq before retiring in 2018 with six Bronze Stars. He then became a paramilitary officer with the CIA and later served as a counterterrorism advisor to Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign.
Kent’s foreign policy worldview is shaped by personal tragedy. His first wife, Navy cryptologist Shannon Smith, was killed by a suicide bomber in Syria in 2019 while aiding in the U.S. fight against ISIS, with her death hardening his skepticism of U.S. foreign intervention. During the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, he tore into the defense industry and Washington’s “permanent ruling class,” arguing the wars had been prolonged “on the backs and dead bodies of U.S. soldiers” by people “making money and making their careers at the other end of it.”
This is how Trump talks about Joe Kent, a man he appointed as Director of National Counterterrorism. Kent is a bonafide American Hero with INTEGRITY who served his country at the highest levels.
