"Mr. Saakashvili [seen on his knees above] belongs to a generation of young men and women from the former Soviet Union who were educated in the West but returned to their home countries. He proudly professes to hold “American values.” His personal, fierce allegiance to the United States, where he became a successful lawyer, has helped make Georgia, a onetime backwater, into a pivotal country in the politics of the post-Soviet era. Mr. Saakashvili was also a strong supporter of the American-led war in Iraq, contributing the second largest contingent of troops this year after only Britain, before the soldiers returned to Georgia this week to join the fighting."