Former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent is again urging the United States to pull its troops out of the Middle East as the war with Iran continues.
“Get our troops out now before we suffer a mass casualty attack. Break the escalation trap. Trump still has the political strength at home to declare victory & have it resonate, that ability will be lost if we suffer more casualties. Now is the time to leave, immediately,” Kent wrote Sunday on X.
INC News contacted the White House on Monday for comment.
President Donald Trump steps off Air Force One upon arrival at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, N.Y. on July 17, 2026. (Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images)
Kent’s remarks came as he shared a post from U.S. Central Command, known as CENTCOM.
“Yesterday, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the passing of two U.S. service members and the missing status of one in Jordan following an Iranian attack on July 17. After a thorough search, U.S. military personnel found unidentified remains at the location earlier today. An examination process to verify the remains is ongoing,” CENTCOM said in part of a statement released Sunday.
The command also reported a separate casualty in northern Iraq, saying, “Separately, a U.S. service member in northern Iraq was killed in action July 18 during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone. A second service member was wounded and continues to receive medical treatment for a minor injury.”
Kent left his counterterrorism role in the federal government earlier this year, pointing to his opposition to the war with Iran.
In part of his resignation letter he asserted, “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.”
Joseph Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In a portion of a Saturday post on X he wrote, “We restore order by ending the conflict on our terms: deprive Iran of military targets to strike by removing our troops, bases, & naval forces from the area. Our bases in the region are liabilities & relics of the past—abandoning them is not retreat, it’s strategic adaptation to modern warfare. This move removes Iran’s primary justification for disrupting shipping in the SOH and for attacking its neighbors. We can then offer the carrot: sanctions relief in exchange for freedom of navigation in the SOH.”
