That should be a headline going forward. There’s still time.
Truth: Those who cave to Moscow today will soon become its conscripts tomorrow, thrown into wars they sought to avoid. Secret police states don’t govern well and the Soviet Union proved it, collapsing on itself. The Putin persona is a trained product of that failed system.
Argument: Georgian politicians must hear the majority of Georgians and rally the warrior spirit of their people against the neo-Soviet project of the silovarchy that hijacked Russia.
Secret police autocracies think corruptly alike. Georgian politicians acquiescing to their threats are failing their people for the long haul. They should instead stand tall, outnumber and neutralize their bullies. They should not try to fight Russia’s way because their leaders haven’t prepared for that, playing the appeasement card. Georgians should instead engage whatever Russian forces dare to open a second front outside of Ukraine with a persistent, mobile guerrilla war that is a quagmire for Putin. Now is the time while Russia is engaged with the brave Ukrainians.
Georgia was miserable under the Soviet Union just as other republics were. Citizens of Soviet republics found themselves having to bribe doctors to give them standard of care; bribe government officials to get trumped-up fines reduced; bribe KGB internal security not to inform on them; pay organized crime enforcers to be able to continue doing business; and pay judges to compete with other parties paying judges to clamor for a semblance of justice.
Short memories make for short stints of freedom when autocrats offer inducements on sharpened hooks. Russia threatens Georgia as it has Ukraine. Yet does anyone believe Russia is ready for a second front? Must the Georgian people bribe everyone up the pecking order to Putin just to get basic things done for the next 50 years? Do Georgians think Putin won’t make them the next wave of conscripts to fight in Ukraine? May as well fight side by side with Ukraine.
It would be better for Georgians to prepare to make the Georgia Putin’s last front, holding Russia’s forces inside a crucible of hurt until they are forced to retreat. That is how free countries act, and make independence last.
With a warrior spirit and the ability to rally the people, members of Georgia’s government, military, police forces, veterans, and citizen groups can join together and eject those who have taken the bribes from Moscow to ransom Georgia’s future freedom. When the wolves around the aging dear leader of Moscow rip him out of his hospital bed and throw him out a window, the repression will start over again.
There’s a better way geopolitically, and that way is to ally with Armenia, Ukraine, and others in solidarity against Russian occupation and the candy coated Chinese debt deals with hidden hooks in them. Turn West, ally-up, and hold onto your freedom. There is an opportunity now that should not go to waste. Doing this will give others across the former Soviet Union the nerve to join in.
It only takes a spark to get a fire going as free peoples warm up to its glowing, contributing wood and fuel for everyone to keep warm. There is strength in numbers pressed against a tyrant tied down and finding it hard to move as winter sets in. Just make sure the tyrant’s winter does not become yours and he send your children to war.
Resist and win going forward, or tomorrow become Putin’s conscripts.
