New Delhi, March 30 -- The heat generated by the ongoing military conflict in the Israel-US-Iran war has now entered its fourth phase and is being widely felt. In a recent move, Joe Kent, a top U.S. counterterrorism official, has resigned over the Iran war. Kent is the highest-ranking Trump administration official to quit in opposition to the conflict. He is also largely known for his support for conspiracy theories. Elaborating on his opposition to the war in Iran, he stated what he believed was Israel's influence over the Trump administration's policies. Some experts say that this is an indication of emerging divisions in the Republican coalition. It is also assessed in some U.S. quarters that the open-ended nature of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran has created strong fissures among Trump's supporters. An anti-interventionist wing of the coalition, which supported President Donald Trump because of his criticism of long overseas conflicts, has suddenly changed its course, as the war shows no immediate sign of ending. Kent, the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, wrote in a letter to President Trump that Iran posed no imminent threat to the U.S., and according to him, it is clear that the U.S. has started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby. Kent's resignation has possibly surprised everyone.
A few anti-Trump elements also reckon that, encouraged by Kent's resignation, more officials may tender their resignations. Following Kent's exit, Trump commented, "I always thought he was a nice guy, but I always thought he was weak on security." The U.S. President further said that "it's a good thing that he's out because he said Iran was not a threat." This has reportedly put Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and Kent's boss, in an embarrassing position. After carefully reviewing all the information before him, President Trump concluded that the Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat and took action based on that conclusion, as noted by Gabbard.
It is also relevant to mention, as carried in The New York Times, that Kent is not an ordinary war critic. He has long had a penchant for conspiracy theories, suggesting without evidence that F.B.I. agents could have been responsible for orchestrating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. He has also dismissed allegations that Russia manipulated the 2016 election, saying that such accusations were part of the "Russia hoax." Kent was also accused of pressuring analysts to change their findings on a Venezuelan prison gang to align with the Trump administration's views.
It is also pertinent to state, as observed in the U.S. print media, that there are other senior administration officials who, like Kent, are sceptical of long overseas military engagements and often argue for a more restrained foreign policy, including Gabbard and Vice President JD Vance. However, the anti-interventionist wing has had a more muted influence on the Trump administration. It is also unlikely, as per some analyses, that Kent's exit will lead to a wave of further resignations. Gabbard and Vance have taken care not to let themselves drift too far out of step with President Trump. It is also worth mentioning that Kent is not the first official to resign from the administration over the war. A lower-level Trump administration appointee, Sameerah Munshi, announced last week that she was stepping down from the White House Religious Liberty Commission, citing the war with Iran as a major factor.
Continuing with the fallout of the war, it is evident that within 24 hours of the first strikes on Iran, a man wearing a shirt with the colours of the Iranian flag killed three people and injured more than a dozen others at a bar in Austin, Texas, as confirmed by authorities. A week later, two teenagers from Pennsylvania, who claimed to be inspired by the Islamic State (IS), attempted to detonate an explosive device at a protest in New York, as stated by prosecutors. On March 12, a former National Guard member, who had spent many years in prison for supporting terrorism, walked into a classroom in Norfolk, Virginia, killing the instructor and wounding two students, according to the F.B.I. Less than two hours later, a man in Michigan ploughed a car into a synagogue and killed himself during a gunfight with security guards, police disclosed.
Since the beginning of the war, which took many Americans by surprise, police have stepped up patrols on public transit and around synagogues. Law enforcement officials are urging people to report any suspicious activity, much like the measures taken after the September 11 attacks. While President Trump has tried to reassure Americans, asserting that his administration has been monitoring Iranian "sleeper cells" in the United States, recent attacks underscore that the dangers are diffuse and that violent attackers often emerge unexpectedly, following a pattern of lone-wolf attacks. These measures indicate heightened alertness in response to potential reprisals.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military claimed on March 15 that the brother of the man who drove a truck into a synagogue in Michigan on March 12 was a Hezbollah commander who had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon earlier that month. The synagogue attacker, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, was a naturalised U.S. citizen born in Lebanon. Four of his relatives were killed in an Israeli airstrike on March 5: his brother Ibrahim and his two children, as well as another brother, Qassem, according to a Lebanese official and a Muslim leader in Michigan. Israel stated that it had confirmed Ibrahim Mohamad Ghazali's role in Hezbollah after intelligence analysis, though it provided no further details on how the information was verified. These linkages suggest that such networks remain active and capable of signalling defiance and possible retaliation.
Now, the resignation of Kent and the war-related violence, including attacks targeting synagogues, point to a worrying trajectory. At this point, these developments may be confined to the United States; however, they could potentially extend across America and beyond as the war intensifies and its effects are felt elsewhere. Not only violent assaults, but also religious extremists may find this an opportune moment to exploit tensions, further polarising and radicalising vulnerable societies.
Views expressed are personal. The writer is a retired IPS officer, Adviser NatStrat, and a former National Security Advisor in Mauritius
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.