Three weeks ago I mentioned that Georgia is on my mind. Yesterday, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov were on hand in Tblisi for the inauguration of the third president of Georgia since its independence from the Soviet Union and the first new president in twelve years.

The developing story is interesting in its own: brash, young democrat leads street revolt that is the undoing of one of the Cold War?s cagiest survivors; an impoverished nation rife with corruption is suddenly, and again, a prized ally of superpowers. It is also interesting because of the deeper ripples that are being felt around the region. To note, yesterday a headline claimed, ?Push for Democracy Has Authoritarians Unnerved.? The story focused on autocratic bureaucrats who rule the former Soviet states and their reaction to democratic elections.

While in Georgia, Powell gave every indication that American aid money would continue to flow to Georgia and he proclaimed, ?the doors to NATO remain open? if Georgia meets the basic entry requirements. Already $166 million is slated for the republic this year, which includes $20 million the U.S., recently gave new president Mikhail Saakashvili to pay police and soldiers. During the Shevardnadze era, more than a billion dollars went to the country. On a per capita basis, this places the little Caucasian nation nearly on par with Egypt and Isreal. After observing the inauguration and visiting with the ousted Eduard Shevardnadze, Powell went to Moscow where he meets today with Vladimir Putin.

The Russians are a step behind the Americans in molding the new Georgian state. Most importantly, Russian communists ruled Georgia from afar with disastrous results for most of the last century. No love lost there. Second, Russia continues to support secessionist movements in two regions of Georgia causing major pain in Tblisi. Third, the Russians maintain four military bases and some 3,000 troops in Georgia despite a 1999 commitment to withdraw. Ivanov has said that withdrawal would take at least 11 years yet the Georgians want them out now.

Yesterday, U.S.-trained troops marched in formation as Russian-made fighter jets roared overhead in Tblisi. Helicopter gunships rained rose petals over the proceedings where the U.S. Secretary of state was a guest of honor. The future looks bright but a long hard road is ahead for the Georgians. Adjacent to Chechnya and situated just west of the roughest neighborhood of nations in the world, it is important that they can at least pay their own police forces. It is important for all of us.

What America doesn?t need is a third world dependency, far from our shores, that continues to be overrun by sanctioned corruption. Currently, members of Shevardnadze?s family own the biggest industries and arrest warrants have recently been issued for several deputy cabinet ministers. Is this a recipe for escalating and suspect foreign aid payments? Quite possibly. However, we would do well to foster liberty and the rule of law in the Near East. It is the geographic, religious and commercial gateway between the Middle East and Asia. Terrorism and statism continue to exert their centrifugal force on emerging progress, but this is a land with a plentitude of ethnic populations that has maintained a respect for tolerance and pluralism. Ideas, just like people and technologies, migrate. For decades, diplomats have recognized the difficulty of migrating ideas to a country from the outside. The most successful adoption of American principles usually results from organic development. When native leaders give support to an idea it is much stronger than having been imposed. And so too can it be in the Near and Middle East. Georgia may be the foothold necessary for democracy, contracts and so much else that is necessary for modern civilization to reach the deepest pockets of despondency on earth.