The President of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, shares his views in 'Dear Americans'

McClatchy Newspapers

GEORGE BRIDGES, KRT

Jalal Talabani, the president of Iraq.

Dear Americans:

As I am visiting the United States for the second time representing free and democratic Iraq, I felt it my duty to give you an update on what has been achieved in Iraq over the past year and on the challenges that lie ahead.

The first thing I would like to convey is the gratitude of all Iraqis, who are fighting for a democratic government and a civil society, to the Americans. Without your commitment, our struggle against despotism could not have made the progress that we have achieved. No expression of thanks could be enough for those who lost loved ones in Iraq. We feel your pain, we honor your sacrifice and we will never forget you.

To those of you who have family and friends in Iraq today, we say: Your sons and daughters are helping us through a historic transition. We will always remember the enormous sacrifice that America is making for Iraq.

Thanks to the United States, we are transforming Iraq from a country that was ruled by fear, repression and dictatorship into a country that is ruled by democracy and has the values of equality, tolerance, human rights and the rule of law at its heart.

April 9, 2003, the day of liberation, heralded a new era in the history of Iraq and the region. That day triggered a sequence of events that laid the foundation of a modern Iraq that is at peace with itself and the world.

All segments of Iraqi society have benefited from liberation

Talabani talks to Americans

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You are welcome Mr. President, I just hope that those on the wacked out left can wake up and stop trying to make this another Vietnam so you and your people can make the final transitions in the years to come. It is so easy for the moonbat left to forget that it took years to get Japan to transform, in fact we are still there. We are still in Germany even though they have tore down the wall and live as one nation again. We are still in Korea 50 years later, we are still in Bosnia even after Clinton promised that our boys and girls would be home by Christmas, I guess that was Christmas in an undertermined year yet to pass.

I am proud of our troops and what they are doing, and it makes me feel good when I get to read something from a person in Iraq living it, and not some "reporter" who sits in their hotel and just writes what they are told.