Georgian Ambassador Vasil Sikharulidze spoke to an overflow crowd of over 200 yesterday at The Heritage Foundation. You can watch the entire event here. The Ambassador began his remarks:
Before 8/6 I never would have anticipated having to speak about Russian invasions and occupations or things that the free world and Nato are now facing.
I would like to reiterate that the Georgian people are now more dedicated than ever to being part the free world, to joining NATO, to breathing the air of freedom and democracy, to living in peace. We are willing to defend our right to exist as a sovereign and independent country.
I want to be clear, the Russian invasion of my country was a highly organized, well planned months ahead, military operation. you just don’t move more than 1200 tanks and 15,000 soldiers into a country in 12 hours without serious planning.
Later in his remarks the Ambassador continued:
We must clear about this. This is not about what Russia did to Georgia, but what Russia intends to do to Europe. I believe that the last few days have shown without a shadow of doubt that Russia is using this moment to project the message to the world that it is back as an imperial power and the free world is powerless to respond. But I do not believe that the West is powerless. Russian aggression can and must be resisted. Power of the free world requires unity. otherwise if they sense weakness and disunity we will find ourselves in much dire circumstances very soon.
[photo by Andrew Blasko]
Sublime to learn that there are still heroes. Men and women willing to learn, fight and die for values Americans take for granted, eg., individual and religious freedom,national security, rule of law, separation of church and state, democratic politics, free market economics, and so on. These are rights and values that too few Americans could be relied on to defend at this moment in history. While Georgians fight for freedom, too many Americans fight for big government, extended bureacracy, less personal responsiblity, effort, risk. The Georgians are what we were. If we are not careful, weary undefended Europeans is what we will become.
The people of Europe and of America need to look squarely at those who want to destroy what we cherish, our freedom. Freedom was born in the Western world. Keeping it requires vigilance. We need to support organizations like Heritage, talk shows like Denis Prager's, and good newspapers like Washington Times. Sadly we spend millions every year for our universities, but too many of them fail to seek truth, the very reason for their existence. And our media, for the most part, does not serve us well.