This is my second trip to Romania, and I have found it to be a country with great natural beauty and found its citizens to be as warm, friendly and outgoing as you could imagine.

Hartwick College has provided me with the opportunity to research the evolution of the country’s tax system since its beginning in 1989.

My study has been expanded to include other areas, including the political and economic systems they have in place. It has been an eye-opening experience.

Every person I have interviewed or talked with informally — sometimes with an interpreter — has a very positive attitude toward the United States. I have yet to find a single person who does not, and I have interacted with many individuals of many professions.

These include doctors, bankers, economists, political scientists, accountants, lawyers, professors, politicians from the major political parties, members of the Financial Guard (their equivalent of our Internal Revenue Service but not nearly as strong), reporters and the head of the U.S. Consulate in Cluj-Napoca, as well as entrepreneurs and owners of small businesses.

Very importantly, Romania has been our partner in the war on terror right from the beginning. It, along with other former Soviet-bloc countries, understands the need to rid the world of people such as Saddam Hussein and terrorist groups such as the Taliban.

Obviously, the people here have lived under very similar harsh regimes. Sorry, Marxists, your ideal utopia is what they overthrew when given the opportunity. They are a country of 20 million and have almost 1,000 soldiers in Iraq and 1,000 in Afghanistan.

Fortunately, I have an English translation of the Bucharest Daily News to keep me informed. Just last Friday, the Liberal Party, one of the five major parties, proposed a resolution to "retreat" Romanian troops from Iraq. It was soundly defeated, and even two ministers in their own party voted against the proposal.

Liberal Party Defense Minister Teodor Atanasiu asked these two ministers to resign from the Liberal Party "as an act of honor." Sounds a little arrogant to me, but we have the same situation at home when our Democrats vilify Joe Lieberman and Zell Miller for voting their conscience rather than toeing the party line.

In response to this resignation request, Democratic Party Vice President Mihai Stanisoara said, "Liberals do not understand that ministers are representatives of the state, not of the party that appointed them. Everything they (Liberals) do is a cheap image game."

There was quite a lot of acrimony in the further debate, and I recognized some close-to-home comments from the speeches. I’ll mention only two here.

President Traian Basescu said, "When its allies are facing difficulties, Romania can’t take its toys and leave. Romania needs to prove it has a reliable foreign policy."

The best quote came from a Mr. Mircea Geoana, another Parliament member. He said, "The saddest thing is that this proves politicians in the alliance (the ruling alliance is made up of two parties, the Liberal Party and the Democratic Party) have no remorse in using national interest — and foreign-policy topics — for a petty purpose with pre-electoral tendencies."

Isn’t it easy to list the politicians and individuals in our country to whom that statement applies? I could assume the obvious — all politics and politicians are the same the world over.

I could wonder whether newly forming democracies are falling for the less-admirable practices in politics and of politicians found in the Western world. I prefer to understand that this is part of the democratic process — the part that makes constituents of the democratic process stand up and voice their opinions and remind the politicians that we do more than watch the process.

Before I close this column, I have to mention some very special people I have met. All have been indispensable to making my trips and goals successful, doing everything from finding accommodations and translators to setting up interviews.

First, there is Miss Ruxandra Baciu, whom I met while she was interning at the Romanian Embassy in Washington last year. Then there are Cristian and Beatrice Aldea, a brother and sister who are attending university in Cluj.

Last, I must mention Mr. Radu Cristea, a successful entrepreneur I met during an interview last fall. A hardworking, trustworthy and sincere person, in the very little time we have known each other, we have truly become the best of friends.

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Tom Sears is a professor of accounting at Hartwick College in Oneonta. He can be reached at SearsT@hartwick.edu. His column appears every other week.