Posted on 08/13/2008 5:49:48 PM PDT by kristinn
TBILISI, Georgia -- Russia's invasion of Georgia strikes at the heart of Western values and our 21st-century system of security. If the international community allows Russia to crush our democratic, independent state, it will be giving carte blanche to authoritarian governments everywhere. Russia intends to destroy not just a country but an idea.
For too long, we all underestimated the ruthlessness of the regime in Moscow. Yesterday brought further evidence of its duplicity: Within 24 hours of agreeing to a cease-fire, Russian forces were rampaging through Gori; blocking the port of Poti; sinking Georgian vessels; and -- worst of all -- brutally purging Georgian villages in South Ossetia, raping women and executing men.
The Russian leadership cannot be trusted -- and this hard reality should guide the West's response. Only Western peacekeepers can end the war.
Russia also seeks to destroy our economy and is bombing factories, ports and other vital sites. Accordingly, we need to establish a modern version of the Berlin Airlift; the United Nations, the United States, Canada and others are moving in this direction, for which we are deeply grateful.
SNIP
This war threatens not only Georgia but security and liberty around the world. If the international community fails to take a resolute stand, it will have sounded the death knell for the spread of freedom and democracy everywhere.
SNIP
I have staked my country's fate on the West's rhetoric about democracy and liberty. As Georgians come under attack, we must ask: If the West is not with us, who is it with? If the line is not drawn now, when will it be drawn? We cannot allow Georgia to become the first victim of a new world order as imagined by Moscow.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
This guy’s country is being invaded and he has time to write an op-ed to the Washington Post?
Churchill he ain’t.
I know I do not trust Putin. I am not sure if I trust this guy either.
Just that those on the outside at Chicago are inside at Denver.
Excuse me?
He has to speak and write publically and often, unless of course he plans on picking up a Rifle...
What an ignorant thing to say. Under the circumstances, I would say the Op-ed and television interviews like the one he gave to Glenn Beck are amont the most effective things he could do right now.
Do you think if he was in a war room directing the movement of the tiny Georgian military, he would be influencing the outcome more than taking an hour to pen an op-ed aimed at American and world public opinion.
Churchill found time to deliver radio appeals during The Blitz, yet you criticize Saakashvili for writing an appeal during this current blitz.
I'm amazed you possess the requisite faculties to access the internet - it's a marvel akin to watching a dog walk on its hind legs.
I never can understand the line of reasoning you just used. How exactly is him writing an Op-Ed appealing to westerners to come to the aid of his nation somehow bad?
He’s fighting a battle for world opinion, for cripe’s sake. What to do expect him to do, wave his magic wand and make the Russian tanks disappear?
Do you have anything to base the second half of that comment on, or have you just been listening to Barrack too much.
Patrick1’s manners are as deficient as his knowledge of history, pathetically enough.
Oh come on. He's named the issues right in front of our government. This was no letter to the editor.
Ping.
>Churchill he ain’t.
Churchill did the same thing, he knew he had to try to convince some Americans that his cause was just.
Maybe he should go on E! next. He can appear just after Elizabeth Edwards.
Then Oprah. Please....lead your nation don’t pander to the Western MSM.
Poti is a major Georgian Black Sea port. According to Fox News, the Russians have been blowing up Georgian ships in the harbor and taking others out into the Black Sea and sinking them after the so called cease fire was to take effect.
This is a good sign for a Capitol Hill consensus to reverse the Russian invasion. The fact that WaPo is printing his plea for assistance is an indication that even liberals are starting to look askance at Putin’s adventure. Georgia may have a fighting chance, after all.
I thought the article rather Churchillian in tone and
substance. Perhaps you are not familiar with his Pre WWII. speeches?
Historian YOU ain’t.
Churchill was a master communicator, especially in the pre-war and England Alone days, trying to lure America’s help.
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