Ukraine Crisis Becomes New Campaign Issue As Small-Town Troops Deploy To Europe

As about 250 Iowans from National Guard companies in Mason City and Iowa City prepare to head to Poland, retired Admiral Mike Franken, a national security-minded candidate for Iowa’s U.S. Senate seat, took a break from the campaign trail to chat about Russia’s threat to Ukraine and explain why far-away Ukraine matters to small-town America. 

The spry veteran looked beyond the immediate Russian threat to Ukraine, saying, “I’m not so sure Russia’s primary objective has changed appreciably. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s perspective is that if America is diminished in the eyes of the world, then Russia is enhanced.” 

“Well, the U.S. isn’t diminished. The world knows our commitment to sound foreign policy objectives has never been stronger,” continued the lanky, wind-grizzled Iowan, “and we are leading with our best…those brave Iowans who are going to Europe are evidence that America is back, and our best days are ahead of us.”  

To Franken, Russia is in a quandary. “Look, Vladimir Putin opened with a weak hand by massing more than 180,000 troops around Ukraine,” said Franken. “That means he has about 90,000 troops available to assault a nation of 40 million. That’s big, but it is a paltry force compared to the Ukrainian defenders who have seen this played out before.” 

“He has a showy hand, playing before an international audience, but based on a dubious rationale in the first place” chuckled the former three-star admiral, “Putin has little more than bluster, and I’d expect his military commanders are telling him that. The logic behind an invasion is woefully faulty, even in Russian eyes. This won’t go well.” 

To Franken, Putin’s effort to suborn Ukraine is a final gasp of a spent society—an economy over-dependent upon resource extraction that is looking at demographic exhaustion within a decade. “The only way for Russia to look good right now is to try and make the U.S. look worse.”

Global Issues Matter in Iowa:

Franken is proud that Iowans in the 1133^rd Transportation Company and the 209^th Medical Company Area Support are heading out to Europe. “This matters! Iowans and Iowa companies have longstanding ties to Ukraine,” said Franken, “and we should all be out there, helping out and building relationships.” 

“Small-town Iowa has done global outreach before,” quipped Franken, as the Admiral detailed how, in 1977, the Pioneer Hi-Bred seed company was the first Iowa company to establish contact with Ukraine, reaching an agreement to evaluate Pioneer seeds in what was then the Soviet Union. That agreement grew into a joint venture in 1989 to develop seed corn in the western Ukrainian town of Rivne and establishing a silage plant in Cherkasy Oblast, in the heart of Ukraine. 

The ties were so strong, that, in 1992, less than a year after an independent Ukraine emerged from the ruins of the Soviet Union, Ukraine’s first President, Leonid Kravchuk, led a delegation away from the bright lights of Washington and New York to small-town Iowa, visiting a Pioneer facility and a farm near the college town of Grinnell. And in 1996, Cherkasy Oblast—thanks to the longstanding collaboration with Iowa companies—formally became an Iowan sister state. 

“Ukraine is a lot like Iowa of a few decades ago. Think agriculture and industry, rural vistas and bustling cities, four seasons and major rivers. It is also a place that values education and achievement,” remarked Franken. 

“Like Iowa, Ukraine is a diversified economy that mixes industry and agriculture with loads of potential,” said Franken, gesturing towards the icy Iowa horizon. “Iowa’s politicians and business leaders may want to highlight that this is why Putin wants Ukraine under the heavy hand of Moscow. Putin has been attempting to fight Ukraine by weakening the nation in the use of cyber warfare and social engineering. Not unlike what outside forces have done in America,” said Franken, shaking his head sadly, “To turn a nation on itself.”  

Support from Iowa goes further than Iowa’s National Guard deployments. The Admiral noted that the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, near the little 363-person town of Middletown, helps fabricate the weapons Ukraine needs right now to defend itself. “Ukraine is getting Javelin anti-armor weapons. And we make the warhead right here, in America’s breadbasket.” 

Both Iowa and Ukraine understand the value of education, as well. “Ukraine ranks 13^th out of 144 countries in higher education. Just like Iowa’s young students, Kyiv’s academics power more than just their homeland. Ukraine has over two thousand students enrolled in U.S. institutions, and like Iowa, they help Ukraine negotiate the global economy.”   

Franken wasted no time in making his electoral case, saying, “What I can provide in the U.S. Senate is an understanding of the interconnectedness of economies. I understand how autocrats like Russia’s President Vladimir Putin are using asymmetric means to weaken nations like Ukraine, and I’m not going to be tied down by a Party that thinks Putin is a nice, friendly guy we should emulate.”  

“It is not too big of a stretch to say that the U.S. needs leaders who can help small-town America grapple with this sort of new warfare and beat it,” said Franken. “That’s why sending young Iowans out there to see the world is so important. I’m just so proud of Iowa’s National Guard and what they’re set to do in Europe.” 

“We need leaders who have got to be ready to use all the tools we can,” Franken remarked. “it’s no surprise that, just as Putin began to move his army forward, he slapped a 6-month quota on fertilizer exports. It’s going to raise the price of fertilizer in Europe, and maybe with implications in Iowa, but we need to do more than just investigate. We need to act, and do things like cut tariffs, diversify our fertilizer industry and get critical industrial pieces like barge transport fixed and ready to support America. America can out-compete anyone.”

Then an energized Franken, speaking to a reporter in a brief break between fundraising phone calls, sighed. “I like the outreach that goes with fundraising, but it’s much more fulfilling to talk about why Iowa is so important to America’s national security and how diplomacy affects things here at home. Putin and his friends may not think this sort of message can catch on in places like Iowa,” said Franken, “but it is,” flashing a grim smile as he turned back to the campaign trail.