A Warm Welcome
It was the first visit by a U.S. president to this impoverished former Soviet republic, and Georgians staged a phenomenal welcome. The motorcade route was filled with cheering Georgians, and buildings had been freshly painted and roads newly paved. A ceremony for Mr. Bush in Old Town Tbilisi was complete with hundreds of whirling dancers, acrobats and a fireworks display.
At first only planning a 20-minute stop, President Bush was caught up in the evening's revelry and remained for nearly two hours, including sitting down for a meal in a restaurant along the street. As he emerged in the doorway of the restaurant to leave, the dancing and singing resumed and a huge fireworks show sent him off.
Saakashvili led Georgia's Rose Revolution in 2003 that overthrew a corrupt government and became a model for other uprisings that have shaken the Kremlin. "The Rose Revolution was a powerful moment in modern history," Mr. Bush said. "It not only inspired the people of Georgia, it inspired others around the world that want to live in a free society."
Surging crowds broke through police lines at the square so as to hear the president speak, toppling barricades. Estimates of the crowd size varied wildly, from less than 100,000 to more than 300,000. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said it was by far the largest gathering in the country since its independence, and it was certainly one of the largest President Bush has ever addressed.
Freedom Square, which was known as Lenin Square during Soviet rule, is where Soviet forces violently broke up large protests in 1989. It's also where demonstrators gathered in 1991 as the Soviet Union fell and again in 2003 for protests that ousted then-President Eduard Shevardnadze after fraud-infected elections.
"Your courage is inspiring democratic reformers and sending a message that echoes across the world: Freedom will be the future of every nation and every people on Earth," Mr. Bush told the crowd.
Ongoing fights in violent separatist regions, military campaigns against terrorists in the Pankisi Gorge and the recent abductions of foreigners presented security challenges that required President Bush to deliver his open-air speech from a podium surrounded by a high wall of a clear bulletproof screen with sharpshooters on rooftops surrounding the square.