Former US Counterterrorism Chief Pushes West Asia Troop Exit
By Staff, Agencies
Former US National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent welcomed President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel planned strikes on Iran, urging Washington to withdraw its troops from West Asia to avoid a prolonged war.
Kent said Trump's latest decision reflected a desire to end the war, adding that continued military escalation would only deepen the war without achieving lasting security.
"President Trump again called off strikes on Iran. This is a good decision," Kent wrote.
"It is clear that he wants out of this war, for all the obvious reasons. It is also clear that Iran will not simply return the Strait of Hormuz to how it was before the war."
Kent argued that previous attempts to secure the vital maritime corridor through military force had failed and warned that pursuing the same strategy would risk a devastating and prolonged conflict.
"We need to accept that we can't use military force to open the SOH [we've tried that] without a catastrophic escalation into a bloody, years-long war," he said.
Kent urged Trump to begin withdrawing US troops from the region, arguing that Washington could declare success by maintaining its stated objective of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons while pursuing diplomacy.
"Now is the time for President Trump to pull our troops out of the region. He can declare victory [reiterate the previously stated goal—no nukes—was met] and quietly use the carrot of sanctions relief to open the SOH once our troops are out of harm's way."
Kent cautioned that maintaining US forces in the region could accelerate an uncontrollable cycle of military escalation and retaliation.
"If we stay, we risk accelerating an escalation/retaliation cycle we can't control," he warned.
Six months into its war on Iran, Washington finds itself increasingly reacting to a battlefield tempo set by Tehran, not the other way around, according to an analysis published by the Financial Times, which cites regional analysts and former officials tracking the shifting balance of the war.
Over the past two weeks, Iran and its allies have moved from a defensive posture to a pre-emptive one, striking a US military installation in Jordan, disrupting shipping lanes in the Red Sea, and hitting targets in Syria.
The FT's analysis argued the shift signals Tehran's growing confidence in its ability to control the pace and scope of the confrontation, and to make continued US aggression costly.
Analysts cited by the FT noted that Iran's calculus has hardened since the Martyring of Leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei, stressing that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards [IRG] have taken a more assertive role in shaping strategy.
Iranian officials and allied voices in the region increasingly view negotiations with Washington as futile, the report argues, contending instead that sustained pressure, military and economic, is the only language the US administration understands.
The collapse of the June memorandum, which had briefly eased hostilities and reopened discussion around the Strait of Hormuz, underscores this shift.
After US-linked vessels attempted to breach the strait, Iran responded with strikes at sea, prompting Washington to launch a fresh wave of attacks on southern Iran.
Since then, FT argues that Tehran and its allies have widened the scope of the war rather than retreat from it, extending pressure to the Bab al-Mandab and Suez corridors alongside Hormuz, effectively placing all three of the region's critical maritime chokepoints within reach.
