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Top counterterrorism official Joe Kent resigns over Trump's Iran war – AP News

50 points by treetalker 7mo ago

treetalker 7mo ago
[dead]
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]
mindslight 7mo ago
It seems like many fascism supporters are about to find out how "There is one lord of the ring and he does not share power". It was never about any of the longstanding gripes or appeals to ideals - merely the lust for power and a siren song of telling people easy answers they want to hear. I say this as someone for whom Trump visited many things I care about in 2016 - I was the weirdo telling my aghast blue tribe friends that he had a good shot at winning. (I stated this in this direction, as opposed to the customary direction of "I agreed with Trump", because the latter is essentially undefined, as he constantly stakes out contradictory policy positions, often even in the same sentence) (and to be clear, I of course wasn't foolish enough to vote for the guy. I don't even believe the hopium-lies of regular politicians, never mind someone who has the con artistry cranked up to 11)
gotwaz 7mo ago
Resigning from position of power doesnt help anyone when you can stay there and fuck with the programme. Check out Paddy Ashdown's Nein. Shows how its done.
- mindslight 7mo ago
  I agree with you in general. The problem is that we're increasingly in the territory where the person resigning only disagrees with one aspect of the overall policy, rather than coming to any larger realization.
- burnt-resistor 7mo ago
  It's easy to say online when it's not your career and reputation on the line. While there maybe no functional external difference in: (a) resignation and potential replacement with someone else more willing/possibly less competent (b) not resigning and maliciously complying there are the matters of losing self-respect and peer credibility, opportunity costs of inability to apply effort and focus on something else more worthwhile when choosing (b), and an inability to criticize leadership. With enough resignations and people speaking out, it adds even more to the mountain of evidence as a clear signal to reticent holdout, convincible non-ideologues.
  - gotwaz 7mo ago
    Well look at Trumps first term. Count the number of resignations. The man then goes on to win a second terms. All the resigning didnt make a dent imho.
    - kombookcha 7mo ago
      They make it their business to replace resignees with loyalists. In terms of generating friction for the regime, it makes more sense to make your stand in office and make them fire you, but that carries a lot of personal/career costs too. Which I suspect is why people choose walking away instead. Preemptive compliance does nobody any good.
    - burnt-resistor 7mo ago
      Like I said, the "dent" is the preservation of whatever's left of those people's reputations and their freedom to take other jobs, found other advocacy groups, and do other positive works outside of it. It's also impossible to measure of what impact has been slowed down or sped up, thwarted or enabled by replacing or vacating positions. The essential, critical path is impeachment and conviction of 45-47 and the cabinet, which requires parallel efforts of immense political pressure applied to every Republican member of Congress and primarying and overwhelming voter turnout to replace members of Congress who refuse.
thomassmith65 7mo ago
A couple dozen Iranian theocrats are dead, and now far-right Joe Kent is gone, too? This really is the war that keeps on giving!
- Dig1t 7mo ago
  You forgot to mention the US soldiers who were killed and also the girls school that we did a double tap strike on. i.e. they blew up a school with kids in it, then when people went in to try and rescue the survivors they struck the school again to kill the rescuers. https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2026/3/12/who-bombed-the-iranian-girls-school-killing-more-than-170-what-we-know https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2026/3/12/who-bombed-the-... It's amazing how you people are so okay with killing children. It will not be forgotten.
  - thomassmith65 7mo ago
    'Okay' with taking down the mullahs and IRGC is an understatement. If the Americans or Israelis were sending a squadron of John Wayne Gacy clones to murder children, I would be against that. I would be disgusted with people who oppose this war if I thought they understood what they are opposing.
Dig1t 7mo ago
>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 Every expert on this topic is saying the same thing. This entire conflict (and the war in Iraq was also) has been for Israel and at the hand of the Israel lobby. Miriam Adelson, Sheldon Adelson, Larry Elison (who has conveniently taken control of the TikTok algorithm and banned the phrase "#freepalestine" through his connection with Trump) have donated hundreds of millions for this exact outcome.

50 points by treetalker 7mo ago

treetalker 7mo ago

[dead]

deleted 7mo ago

[deleted]

mindslight 7mo ago

It seems like many fascism supporters are about to find out how "There is one lord of the ring and he does not share power". It was never about any of the longstanding gripes or appeals to ideals - merely the lust for power and a siren song of telling people easy answers they want to hear. I say this as someone for whom Trump visited many things I care about in 2016 - I was the weirdo telling my aghast blue tribe friends that he had a good shot at winning. (I stated this in this direction, as opposed to the customary direction of "I agreed with Trump", because the latter is essentially undefined, as he constantly stakes out contradictory policy positions, often even in the same sentence) (and to be clear, I of course wasn't foolish enough to vote for the guy. I don't even believe the hopium-lies of regular politicians, never mind someone who has the con artistry cranked up to 11)

gotwaz 7mo ago

Resigning from position of power doesnt help anyone when you can stay there and fuck with the programme. Check out Paddy Ashdown's Nein. Shows how its done.

mindslight 7mo ago
I agree with you in general. The problem is that we're increasingly in the territory where the person resigning only disagrees with one aspect of the overall policy, rather than coming to any larger realization.
burnt-resistor 7mo ago
It's easy to say online when it's not your career and reputation on the line. While there maybe no functional external difference in: (a) resignation and potential replacement with someone else more willing/possibly less competent (b) not resigning and maliciously complying there are the matters of losing self-respect and peer credibility, opportunity costs of inability to apply effort and focus on something else more worthwhile when choosing (b), and an inability to criticize leadership. With enough resignations and people speaking out, it adds even more to the mountain of evidence as a clear signal to reticent holdout, convincible non-ideologues.
- gotwaz 7mo ago
  Well look at Trumps first term. Count the number of resignations. The man then goes on to win a second terms. All the resigning didnt make a dent imho.
  - kombookcha 7mo ago
    They make it their business to replace resignees with loyalists. In terms of generating friction for the regime, it makes more sense to make your stand in office and make them fire you, but that carries a lot of personal/career costs too. Which I suspect is why people choose walking away instead. Preemptive compliance does nobody any good.
  - burnt-resistor 7mo ago
    Like I said, the "dent" is the preservation of whatever's left of those people's reputations and their freedom to take other jobs, found other advocacy groups, and do other positive works outside of it. It's also impossible to measure of what impact has been slowed down or sped up, thwarted or enabled by replacing or vacating positions. The essential, critical path is impeachment and conviction of 45-47 and the cabinet, which requires parallel efforts of immense political pressure applied to every Republican member of Congress and primarying and overwhelming voter turnout to replace members of Congress who refuse.

thomassmith65 7mo ago

A couple dozen Iranian theocrats are dead, and now far-right Joe Kent is gone, too? This really is the war that keeps on giving!

Dig1t 7mo ago
You forgot to mention the US soldiers who were killed and also the girls school that we did a double tap strike on. i.e. they blew up a school with kids in it, then when people went in to try and rescue the survivors they struck the school again to kill the rescuers. https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2026/3/12/who-bombed-the-iranian-girls-school-killing-more-than-170-what-we-know https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2026/3/12/who-bombed-the-... It's amazing how you people are so okay with killing children. It will not be forgotten.
- thomassmith65 7mo ago
  'Okay' with taking down the mullahs and IRGC is an understatement. If the Americans or Israelis were sending a squadron of John Wayne Gacy clones to murder children, I would be against that. I would be disgusted with people who oppose this war if I thought they understood what they are opposing.

Dig1t 7mo ago

>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 Every expert on this topic is saying the same thing. This entire conflict (and the war in Iraq was also) has been for Israel and at the hand of the Israel lobby. Miriam Adelson, Sheldon Adelson, Larry Elison (who has conveniently taken control of the TikTok algorithm and banned the phrase "#freepalestine" through his connection with Trump) have donated hundreds of millions for this exact outcome.