Washington DC: Former US National Counterterrorism Centre Director Joe Kent, on Friday, said he resigned from his position over the war involving Iran, saying he could not support sending American troops into another prolonged conflict overseas.
Addressing at the third annual "Catholic Prayer for America" Gala in Washington DC, Kent said his decision was guided by his conscience after decades of military service in the Middle East.
"I will not in good conscience send young men and women off to die on foreign battlefields," Kent said. "We're at a critical juncture in the war in Iran; we need to let our leaders hear that we do not support this war."
Kent, who served for about 20 years with multiple deployments in the Middle East, said his experiences in past conflicts influenced his decision to step down.
"After serving 20 years, mostly deployed to the Middle East, fighting the wars over there, and just seeing how our country had been lied to and brought down the wrong path in those wars, and that we were getting sucked into another one, and that the American people didn't have the full story and our country did not have a vital national interest in this current fight, I said, 'Hey, I in good conscience can't do this'," he said.
He added that he had made a personal promise during his early deployments in Iraq that if ever held a position of responsibility, he would not send American troops into wars he believed lacked a clear national interest. Kent also said the current conflict does not serve a vital US national security objective. (ANI)
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