THE PURITY TEST TAKES PRECEDENCE.

Until yesterday, Joe Kent directed the National Counterterrorism Center.  No, that's not a plotline from 24, it's a real government agency with real bureaucrats.  And if you're Brett Wilkins with Common Dreams, when a bureaucrat steps down citing reasons that a big chunk of Common Dreams readership probably concur with, it's more important that said bureaucrat's shortcomings matter more than his change of heart.

National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent announced his resignation Tuesday, accusing President Donald Trump of being manipulated by Israel into launching a war on Iran.

“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. 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,” Kent—a former Army Ranger and CIA paramilitary officer often described as a white nationalist and conspiracy theorist—wrote in his resignation letter to Trump.

He could have noted another instance of sloppy personnel policy in the Trump presidency to a Right on! from the True Believers and let the Militant Normals engage in recriminations.  But no, it's important that the people who object to the major combat operations in Asia Minor be beyond reproach.  "While Kent’s resignation drew praise from many opponents of Trump and the illegal US-Israeli war of choice in Iran, others focused on his troubling record and associations."