As soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines we are drilled to accept and implement our orders without hesitation or debate. It is the fundamental tenet of military life, and an integral part of a functioning and successful chain of command.
It is our role to accomplish the mission, not to question it.
But that culture of obedience follows us after we take off the uniform too. Compliance while fighting undeclared wars in faraway places extends into silence after we return home, and after we’ve buried our friends.
In a generation past, there was a Marine who did not choose a silent retirement. The recipient of two Medals of Honor, he had achieved the highest rank while fighting in over half a dozen countries from one end of the world to the other.
Smedley Butler dissented from the foreign policy he had participated in because, he reportedly said, “We Americans who will protect our flag should have a voice in where it is flown.” And despite his unimpeachable record of heroism and patriotism, he was disparaged and mocked by his government and the corporate press.
Today, the same treatment is being meted out to another soldier.
Joe Kent served 20 years as a Green Beret, with 11 combat deployments during the Global War on Terror. He is a Gold Star husband whose late wife, Shannon, was killed in action in Syria in 2019. This week, he resigned his post as director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center in principled opposition to the U.S. war with Iran.
For that decision he is being labeled a traitor to his country, his sacrifices in blood scorned, and his record of service spit upon by the most prominent figures in our politics and media.
These consequences are why there exists a culture of silence among America’s veterans, who when polled privately oppose the endless wars of the past 25 years at higher rates than the civilian population.
As chairman of Bring Our Troops Home, I’m asking my fellow veterans to break that silence. Ask the questions out loud that you’ve been asking privately to yourself and your brothers-in-arms. You’ve earned that right more than anyone through blood, sweat, and tears.
I’ve been asking these questions for years. Why does the justification for these wars keep changing? Why does the mission keep expanding? Why do the costs always fall on us? Why does there never seem to be accountability in Washington?
I’m a retired sergeant who does not have all the answers, but, as an American, I’m now demanding them from my representatives.
You and I don’t have theories about the cost of war. We have firsthand testimony. We were the instruments of the policy. That gives us a certain standing that no think tank analyst, no cable news pundit, and no pencil-pushing bureaucrat can claim.
The architects of these wars have always counted on America’s veterans being too loyal, too proud, or too exhausted to speak out. They point to our silence and disconnection after removing the uniform as living proof that we had no objections to their decisions. Many of us felt compelled to stay quiet because dissent felt like dishonoring the sacrifice of the dead.
I’ve come to believe that continued silence is the real dishonor.
Right now, more Americans are dying in a new war, another conflict started outside the bounds of the Constitution that I took an oath to uphold. We do not owe anyone our silence while the next generation is being sent downrange.
Joe Kent has spoken out at great personal and professional cost. That is not radicalism or anti-Americanism. That’s integrity, something we used to be better at recognizing in this country.
I am calling on my fellow veterans—regardless of branch or era of service or current political affiliation—to add their names to this statement. Not as an endorsement of any party or a particular policy, but as a declaration of solidarity with Joe Kent and his finally breaking the silence too many of us held for too long.
One of my personal role models, the late Senator William Borah from my home state of Idaho, once counseled, “There is only one way…to make a fight on fundamental questions of right and wrong, or patriotism and treason, and this is to run up your flag and fight to the end.”
I am running up that flag and waiting to see how many other veterans stand up to salute it.
Support Joe Kent. Not because he has all the answers, but because he has shown the most courage to ask the right questions.
They can ignore one person. They cannot ignore a generation of veterans who finally decide to speak.
Sergeant (Ret.) Dan McKnight
Chairman, Bring Our Troops Home
USMC / U.S. Army / Idaho Army National Guard
Afghanistan Combat Veteran
Colonel (Ret.) Douglas Macgregor, PhD
U.S. Army
Former Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense
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Lieutenant Colonel (Ret) Daniel L. Davis
U.S. Army (Ret)
Host of Daniel Davis Deep Dive on Youtube
Captain (Ret.) Matthew Hoh
USMC
Iraq War veteran
Resigned State Department position in Afghanistan in protest of escalation of war in 2009.
Senior Fellow, Eisenhower Media Network
To add your name to the list of veterans and supporters of Joe Kent in his principled stand against unconstitutional war, visit www.BringOurTroopsHome.US or add your name here.
