The time is over for ‘business as usual’

It is an amazing honor to stand in front of so many people who, like every other person in the world, love freedom. …

As an American, I tend to break things down into American terms, so if you think that 120,000 people murdered by this regime in 1979 and 1988 and 2009, and you convert for the population difference between the United States, it would be the equivalent of all the Americans who died in the entire Second World War.

Like many of the Millennials, I don’t remember very well the events of 1988, but I do remember watching in 2009 during the Green Revolution, first with respect and awe and admiration, and then with shame and horror and disgust, as people rose up and demanded freedom, and the world community and the American government did nothing. And I will not stand for that — at the very least I will raise my voice and stand united with the people who insist on a free Iran.

I didn’t go to Congress to watch. You didn’t come here to watch. I came to change “business as usual.” You came to change “business as usual.”

Let us put our friends and enemies on notice alike — we are many and we will prevail.

There can be no change, however, without addressing the instrument of horror that props up the oppressive mullahs. The IRGC must be eviscerated. The IRGC controls the entire black market economy … They use those monies to fund terror literally across the globe, to oppress voices of dissent in Iran and to kill Iranians in their own streets.

And so … it is my sincerest hope that I see each and every one of you again next year — in Tehran.

• Republican Rep. Thomas A. Garrett Jr., represents the 5th Congressional District in Virginia and serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. This excerpt is from his remarks to the July 1 rally in Paris.