During my 20 years as an Air Force JAG, I had the amazing opportunity to teach military operational law to officers from around the world at the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany. I’ve been able to harness that knowledge when discussing all sorts of other international conflicts that have taken place in the past year, whether it was airstrikes in Qatar, shooting boats in the Caribbean, or the operation to kidnap Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.
Just a couple days ago, Iran attacked three shipping vessels traveling through the Strait of Hormuz. These attacks were unwarranted and directly contrary to the wording of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that was holding the ceasefire between the United States and Iran.
The relevant part of the MOU comes from point 5 of 14. It reads: “…the Islamic Republic of Iran will make arrangements…for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge for 60 days only from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman and vice versa. The traffic of commercial vessels will immediately start…”
This point of the MOU gives some leeway on logistics, such as getting sea mines out of the water or coordinating with Oman on administering the Strait of Hormuz in the future, but the main points are clear: Commercial vessels will immediately be allowed safe and free passage while the MOU is in effect.
I’ve spoken to thousands of South Dakotans on the campaign trail, and they all tell me the same things. They want our political systems to work, they want stability in government, and they just want to see the country we all love live up to its potential. That’s what I running for U.S. Senate to achieve, and with your support I can stay on the trail to keep earning votes. Thank you for your help.
Iran plainly violated the framework deal, so the United States retaliated. It’s cut-and-dry in terms of international law, which makes this ordeal even more frustrating. We’re stuck in a lose-lose scenario. If we ignored the attacks, then we’d abandon our responsibility to international safety and trade (even more than we already have). If we retaliate (as we did yesterday), then the MOU is off the table and we’re back to square one. Really, it feels like we’ve been at square one since February.
The fact remains that this wouldn’t have happened in the first place if we hadn’t entered a hasty and ill-defined war on nothing more than the hope that killing Iran’s leadership would collapse the country entirely. Both houses of Congress have passed War Powers Resolutions ordering the President to go through the proper channels of declaring war, but there isn’t anything to actually uphold it.
None of this should be happening.
It only is because we have a broken political system. We have a Congress that can’t move when it wants to, and won’t move when it has to. We have a Supreme Court that operates as it pleases without any binding ethical guidelines. Checks and balances only work when branches of government are willing to check and balance one another.
The cat is back out of the bag. The President has already said the MOU “is over.” Wherever we go from here, we have to put leaders in office who are actually willing to follow, uphold, and apply the Constitution.
Gas prices had just started to go back down here in South Dakota. South Dakotans deserve a leader who will speak up for them, who would have looked at climbing gas prices and said “this stops here, I won’t stand by and see my constituents’ wallets bled dry like this.” We don’t have that right now, but that’s exactly who I plan to be as I run for U.S. Senate.
Thank you for reading.
Brian L. Bengs, Lt Col (Ret)
Independent Candidate for U.S. Senate
I’m running for U.S. Senate as an Independent because I just can’t stand by as our political dysfunction continues to hurt regular folks. In recent polling, I’m only four points behind my opponent, incumbent career politician Mike Rounds. Consider contributing to my campaign to help me close that gap so I can put people over parties. Thank you.
The other wild card factor in all this is Israel, Hezbollah and Israel’s separate concerns about Iran having nuclear capabilities. It is a war of several countries and so complicated it’s crazy to go in with them and stir it up. We’ve been used and Iran is an old and deep culture and people. They are smart and have mastered the asymmetry here with the Strait issue - which was a well known Ace up their sleeve.
Thanks for keeping it real if we had a functioning government we wouldn't be here I'm not in your state but if I was I'd vote for you keep up the good work