Joe Wilson’s War: Georgia is fighting for its future By Will Cathcart
By Will Cathcart
Since 2007, I’ve reported on Georgia for this paper and your readership has graciously indulged my whims, tolerated my far-flung detours and endured my occasional hyperbole. To a roving 26-year-old with a Hemingway complex, everything seemed like a defining moment or the end of an era.
I’ve sent you dispatches from five continents since 2006 covering random conflicts and geopolitical trends, and somewhere along the way, I became a person. Like most important things in life, it’s the people who matter: Never underestimate how much the spirit of a readership affects a publication. People often refer to the editorial and news sides of a paper as a “separation of church and state.” I think a trinity is more apt — editorial, news and readership.
Along the way, we’ve lost some giants, we’ve overcome expectations, and of course, we’ve gotten some things wrong. I’m ashamed to this day to have edited the words of one of our former columnists who referred to the late artist formerly known as Prince as a dancing purple midget during his 2007 Super Bowl halftime show. And yet, that is one of my few regrets.
What I’m proud of is that we chose our enemies carefully and stuck to our guns. It’s remarkable that a single paper can throw punches at both SCE&G (think nuclear fiasco) and Vladimir Putin with equal frequency. Countering Putin emerged as a theme in my life and in the coverage of this paper.
Back in 2007, Putin had just as many real politicapologists as he does today. His crimes against humanity have grown exponentially, and yet those apologists continue to ebb and flow at the rate of their self-interest. I don’t know if it’s in fashion to hate Putin these days or not, and I do not care. His crimes speak for themselves, and sometimes it takes more courage to call a thing what it is than to take action against it. Without the former, the latter doesn’t happen.
So, I want to thank the readers of this once-salmon-colored rag — we’ve certainly changed throughout the years, even in our color (blame the current managing editor for that change), but we’ve done so to remain true to an internal compass within the limitations of an industry that is accused of dying at least once a year. Or to put it another way:
"This above all: to our own print we’ve been true
And it must follow, as the copy follows the deadline
We canst not then be false to any reader … even at our own expense."
I wish it was just 26-year-old hyperbole typing when I say that at no point in 18 years of covering Georgia has that nation been in more dire peril. For the first time in my career, I’ve begun to heed the advice of colleagues when they say that the knock at my front door by security services coming to detain and arrest me is inevitable. I’m not being defeatist — it is happening to journalists and activists around me. I am not masquerading as somebody important, but there is a statistical likelihood that I’ve come to accept, and precautions are being put in place.
Georgia is now a captured state complete with a shiny PR machine (thanks to its lobbying firm in Washington). After the last democratically elected president of this country office last week at the end of her term (as dictated by the constitution), every institution — including the courts — has been taken over by the ruling pro-Russian Georgian Dream Party and the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, sycophants and yes-men who serve at the pleasure of the entire government.
Until the war in Ukraine (which made the “Georgian Dream” extremely wealthy) it was better described as having anti-Western tendencies. There’s a thin line between that and the bidding of the Kremlin. That line was crossed long ago.
This makes it very hard to separate events in Georgia, Ukraine and Russia: the usual ways people define these nations as separate — such as borders, governments and organized crime — have been rendered arbitrary. For instance, it has been less than a year since Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny was murdered in Siberia by Vladimir Putin. All of us — be we remaining members of the underground Russian opposition, those fighting in frozen fields in Ukraine or those breathing tear gas and being beaten in the streets of Tbilisi — continue to grieve that man. This unity is something Putin will never understand. Every time one of us is pulled off the streets, assaulted and thrown in to prison, we become stronger.
Likewise, the fall of Assad in Syria and the long-awaited (read: criminally late) sanctions against Georgia’s ruling oligarch were simultaneously celebrated by the resistance in all three countries. There is very little that divides us, something the Kremlin never saw coming. Our unity is a reason for hope. There aren’t many of those these days.
And so, Georgia finds itself at a turning point: Each night, thousands of Georgians refuse to be silenced by a regime that has betrayed its people and its constitution in which European integration is enshrined and take to the streets. Things erupted on Thanksgiving when our dead-eyed fop of a prime minister announced he was “suspending” EU integration until 2028 — essentially a declaration of war. We will not stop until this regime collapses; then we will join the Ukrainians in giving Russia back to its people.
There is a palpable kind of sentiment around us — sparks in the air. Somehow, inhaling tear gas for this cause is an honor. Everyone has their own personal reasons that bind them to this cause. For me, if we are not successful, my Georgian-American sons may not have this opportunity. It is hard to bring nations back from the abyss. Look at Belarus. Look at Russia.
What is happening now in Georgia is not merely a protest but a decentralized, grassroots movement to take back Georgia’s European future, fueled by ingenuity and resilience. Armed with drones, Roman candles, and TikTok strategies, young people navigate the backstreets of Tbilisi, disappearing into safehouses and reemerging stronger. It is a fight for freedom that spans the country, adapting in real-time through Telegram networks and laser projections.
This may not sound like much. But neither did the progress of Syrian rebels, until it did. Russia is not just overextended militarily, its ruble is in free fall, and the nation is on the verge of economic collapse.
At the heart of our struggle here in Tbilisi is the ruling Georgian Dream Party. This regime has profited from mass money laundering, explosive housing growth marked by empty buildings, and aiding Russia in evading sanctions — all while turning its back on its people. When a government serves one man instead of its citizens, casualties follow.
The collapse of infrastructure and the neglect of basic safety have claimed countless lives. These are the silent casualties of Ivanishvili’s rule. While his wealth grows, Georgians are left vulnerable in what look like freak accidents. Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream government has blood on its hands — not only from its complicity in Russian aggression but from the everyday lives it fails to protect.
Last week, thanks to our congressman from South Carolina, one Rep. Joe Wilson, the outgoing and rightful president of Georgia was invited to Donald Trump’s inauguration, a symbolic gesture of support from the West. Joe Wilson’s efforts to help Georgia have made him a folk hero here in Georgia. We call our cause Joe Wilson’s War.
Strangers come up to me in the streets and thank me for what Joe Wilson is doing — not because I know him, not because I’m from S.C., but because I’m American. And that says it all. Two nights before Georgia’s constitutionally legitimate president was forced to vacate the presidential residence under the threat of imprisonment — that would make her the second Georgian president to be jailed by Ivanishvili — Joe Wilson invited her to Trump’s inauguration. This message was heard loud and clear.
That day, sanctions against Ivanishvili were finally announced. That message was heard even louder. As welcome a step as this was, the sanctions are disappointingly limited in scope, as they did not extend to the billionaire’s immediate family. This half-measure feels as much cowardly as it is strategic. And guess who is trying to change that: our congressman from S.C.
It’s not too late for the Biden administration to go beyond its relentless mediocrity and get this right. For many men and women here, they see how family members in particular, enable a billionaire strong man.
Because of these sanctions, the constant messages and actions of Joe Wilson, the Georgian people continue to rise.
The universal toast here in Georgia is “Gaumarjos.” It means both “hello” and “for victory.” You see, in this ancient land of hospitable warriors, the two are one and the same. For this reason, South Carolinians and Texans fit in well here. Recently, a new toast is making the rounds as a battle cry: “GaumarJoes, Gaumarjoewilson!”
According to Marika Mikiashvili, foreign secretary of the political party Dros, Coalition for Change, “There is a joke that many Joes will be born in 2025.” Georgians have also showered his Facebook page with likes and comments.
Our demands are clear: free and fair elections, accountability and a government that serves its citizens rather than its oligarch. The ruling party, knowing it has lost legitimacy, responds with extreme violence and new laws befitting a police state. Most are promptly ignored. Still, children have been beaten into comas, and protesters are met with mass tear-gassing and unregulated riot suppression tactics. But every act of brutality has an equal and opposite effect that strengthens our resolve.
What makes this movement remarkable is its improvised flexibility — the streets are only one of its mediums. Unlike Ukraine’s Maidan, which relied on spatial protests and entrenched communities, Georgia’s fight is nimble and decentralized. There are no Western banners or overt signs of international support — a fact that highlights both its grassroots strength and the dangers it faces.
The U.S. embassy in Georgia and its affiliates, concerned about the optics of foreign intervention, have sat this one out. I understand why, but it’s a great disappointment. Still, the West can no longer turn a blind eye. Georgia’s fight is not just about one nation but about the shared values of democracy and freedom. The U.S. and Europe must pressure Ivanishvili to step aside, potentially by sacrificing the prime minister to cool tensions and pave the way for new elections. Without meaningful action, Ivanishvili’s only refuge will be Moscow, a retreat that would mark his final betrayal of Georgia.
Ironically, his family prefers life in the West, and Ivanishvili fears exile in Moscow. Why? Defenestration. With an average yearly extinction rate of around seven percent, if Russian billionaires were animals, they’d be classified as critically endangered — disappearing even faster than the Yangtze finless porpoise.
For the Georgian people, this fight is not a crisis but a reclamation — a movement to take back what has been stolen. It is a fight born of resilience, of a refusal to accept lies and oppression. The Georgian Dream is over. It is time to wake up, face the will of the people, and let this country move forward.
To those watching from abroad: stand with Georgia. And to those who would oppress it, know this — freedom is not yours to take. So, Gaumarjoewilson, Gaumarjomercuryreaders, Slava Ukraini — and God bless the United States of America.
Will Cathcart is a war correspondent, speechwriter and novelist based in Tbilisi, Georgia. A native of Charleston, S.C., he misses the Lowcountry deeply.
