Verbatim: Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili Appeals To The World For Georgia (Transcript)

IBD Editorials ^ | August 15, 2008 | MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI AND CONDOLEEZZA RICE

[Kaslin]

Joint appearance with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Tbilisi, Aug. 15, 2008.

PRESIDENT SAAKASHVILI: Madame Secretary, we had almost five — hour discussion about mechanics to stop ongoing violence and deterring Russian invasion, as well as about massive assistance programs for Georgia from the United States in order to start immediate rebuild, immediate assistance, and immediate normalization of life in my badly damaged country.

As we speak now, significant part of territories of Georgia remain under foreign military occupation. You might have heard reports that some Russian APCs were dislocated to move closer to the capital and on — halfway between Gori and Tbilisi.

While I still — before focusing on today's ceasefire agreement, I still would like to draw your attention to the events that preceded the whole invasion and occupation.

While — when in April, in Bucharest, Georgia was denied Membership Action Plan by some members of NATO, I warned Western media at that stage that it was asking for trouble. Not only they denied us Membership Action Plan, but they specifically told the world that they are denying Georgia Membership Action Plan because of existing territorial conflicts in Georgia, basically inviting the trouble.

And I told the world, this is the worst thing one could say to the Russians, that there will be no NATO until there is conflicts, and more there are of conflicts, less there will be of the NATO. And immediately after April, immediately after Bucharest — and I can tell you now that Russians perceived Bucharest, and I mentioned it and then some of the Western commentators made fun of me, saying that, oh, it — this hot—headed Saakashvili says this rubbish again.

[Truth29]

Excellent speech and comments, but Saakashvili is committing the sin of explicitly telling the West that its failure to listen and react in advance led to the invasion. How many European countries will turn their backs and silently support a Russian fostered replacement of Saakashvili and his government with a more compliant Russian puppet state?

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Saakashvilli told the truth.

And the west doesn’t want to hear it. If the west gets rid of the Georgian President, they are saying, “He’s just a naughty boy. We want to sacrifice Georgia cause we want to stay buddies with Russia...so let’s put in someone who won’t stand up to the Russians. Someone not as “stupid,” or as loud or as strong.Give us someone more maleable, and well, if we lose Georgia,well, Russia certainly wouldn’t try this with Ukraine or Poland. And certainly not Germany or France!”

Good luck.

[Truth29]

Agree. I am afraid that many in Europe and too many in the US, as well, do not want to hear it and want to believe that an endless series of meetings and negotiations constitute effective action in every case anf that force should never be used.

[TigersEye]

We need to answer in one of two ways. Either take a tough stance, as it seems so far Bush and Rice have done, and back it up. Or shut up, walk away and stop giving hollow assurances to our allies. Half-stepping tough talk with no intention of backing it up is immoral to begin with and will lead to greater aggression from Russia than just rolling over and submitting. It will also further discredit the U.S. as a credible ally which is pretty incredible based on past history.

[CapnJack]

Why do I get this nagging flashback to Haile Selassie and his appeal to the League of Nations in June 1936?

Is it history repeating itself again?

[MarMema]

This is the country that has the lowest corruption rate in the region according to the World Bank. This is the country which has the highest per capita FDI rate in the region. This is the country — this is the highest growth rate country among all known — all economies in the world. This is the country where — which moved from 140 — something place in terms of business environment where we were in par with Nigeria and our neighbor, Russia, to being number 17 ahead of the U.K., Germany, Netherlands, and some other leading world economies.

Pretty good speech. I have been worried about him lately he has looked pretty frazzled and out of touch, but this was good. Go, Misha!

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Conscise evaluation and commentary.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

*****Why do I get this nagging flashback to Haile Selassie and his appeal to the League of Nations in June 1936?

Is it history repeating itself again?******

Beat me to it! I was just getting flashbacks of Italy's invasion of Ethiopia!

[Valentine_W]

Saakashvili is kind of a hot-head, but he is understandably upset, overwhelmed, and embarrassed. A small country like Georgia can't stand up to Russia, especially when they overestimate the support of their European allies. I think many European countries already turned their backs months ago when they basically tabled Georgia's NATO membership...I believe the US was virtually alone in the support of that idea. This is a watershed moment for all of the pro-Western former Soviet satellites, they are understandably nervous.

God, it's amazing how quickly things have devolved domestically and abroad in the past year. It really is amazing, if more people would really stop and think about it, they would be legitimately fearful for what the future holds.

[DakotaRed]

The appeal recalls Haile Selassie’s June 1936 APPEAL TO THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

[Sun]

President Saakashvili is truly a man who loves his country, and is fighting as hard as he can.

[TigersEye]

Thanks. I think the choice has to be made with those considerations in mind or it isn't a rational or moral choice at all. It is hard to discuss what we should do if we don't know how serious our government is about backing it up.

Every hypothetical statement made about where one would like us to go has to include a caveat stipulating "if we really mean it" or something like that. That is sad and unfortunate but our spotty history of talking big and then disappearing when the bullets fly is what it is.

So far I like what Pres. Bush is saying and what he is doing disregarding whether he was caught off guard or not. (My caveat to that is that I trust he means it and he is confident that we can back it up.) But his words and actions could quite easily result in an irrational violent response from Russia now and backing down at that point would be very bad.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Another problem is that the Russian army is a for the most part a bunch of drunken thugs, ill disciplined, etc.

Will ping you on the the great Cspan panel discussion..not sure if I did.

[TigersEye]

That would be Russia’s problem if someone will take them on directly. It’s a problem for Georgia as long as the Russians are running around unchecked.