Felt good today watching Iraqi President Talabani's remarks at the White House today on C-SPAN. His sincere comments regarding SH's brutal regime, and his thanks to the United States for helping the Iraqi people cannot be ignored:

Some exerpts from the newly elected leader:

You can find the full transcript on CNN - uh, I mean Foxnews.com :)

"In the name of the Iraqi people, I say to you, Mr. President, and to the glorious American people, thank you, thank you.

Thank you because you have liberated us from the worst kind of dictatorship. Our people suffered too much from this worst kind of dictatorship. The signal is mass graves with hundred thousand of Iraqi innocent children and women, young and old men. Thank you."

And thanks to the United States, there are now 50 million Muslims in Afghanistan andrated by your courageous leadership and decision to liberate us, Mr. President.

We have had a good discussion with Mr. President. We are partners. We are proud to say openly and to repeat it, that we are partners of the United States of America in fighting against tyranny, terrorism and for democracy. That's something we are not shy to say, and we'll repeat it everywhere, here and in Iraq and the United Nations and everywhere.

Iraqis and Americans alike in the war against terrorism. Our soldiers now fighting side by side with your brave soldiers, now and every day.

We have captured many senior elements of Al Qaeda. We killed many of them. And we had also many of them in our prisons.

With your support, we could create a society enjoying democracy for the first time of the history. Now Iraq is a free country. We have all kind of democracy, all kind of freedom of expression, of parties, groups, civil society organizations, that we can say that our democracy is unique in the Middle East.

Our strategy is sound: We build democracy and defend democracy. We talk about hs known that there was area of Al Qaeda, now it became the area of Iraq. And two important signals appeared in that area: that people started to hate and to fight terrorism.

Now we have Iraqi Arab tribes, Sunni tribes, fighting terrorism in Al Qaim. We have also people who are in Tal Afar who have cooperated with Iraqi forces, with American forces against terrorism.

It is a good signal that our people start to understand that terrorism is the enemy of Iraqi people before become the enemy of Americans. They are killing our civilians, our innocent children, bomb students. They are destroying our mosques (inaudible) churches, everywhere, regardless what happen to the people.

And we are now progressing gradually. Last year, for example, Fallujah was their capital. Now it is an Iraqi free city. A year ago, Najaf was a battlefield. Najaf is a holy city of Shiites, it is the Vatican of the Shiites. Now Najaf is being rebuilt, is free, and ruled by the elected committee, elected governor.

 There are still important security challenges. We are not neglecting, but we are fighting Al Qaeda. Now our fight in Iraq will prove that the enemy is going to be weak and lose morale.

The fighting in Tal Afar was easy to defeat the terrorists and to liberate the town from (inaudible).

The so-called jihadists want to impose oppression and dictatorship and worst kind of society on our people. For that, so they are not only the enemy of Iraq but they are the enemy of humanity, the enemy of real Islam and the enemy of all Middle East peoples.

Together with our Americans friends and partners, we will defeat them.

Today, American and international presence in Iraq is vital. American and international presence in Iraq is vital for democracy in Iraq and in the Middle East, and also for prevent foreign interference in the internal affairs of Iraq.

We will set no timetable for withdrawal, Mr. President. A timetable will help the terrorists, will encourage them that they could defeat the superpower of the world and the Iraqi people.

We hope that by the end of 2006, our security forces are up to the level of taking responsibility from many Americans troops with complete agreement with Americans. We don't want to do anything without the agreement with Americans, because we don't want to give any signal to the terrorists that our will to defeat them is weakened or they can defeat us.

We are proud that one day will come -- as soon as possible, of course, we hope -- that American troops can proudly return home and we tell them, "Thank you, dear friends."

As to our faithful to friendship, of course, we are sorry for the sacrifices of American people in Iraq.

But I think a great people like America has a mission in history. They have sacrificed hundreds of thousands of his sons in the First World War, Second World War, and in liberating people in the Balkans, in Afghanistan, Kurdistan.

And the great leader, Mr. George W. Bush, is continuing the same mission of the American people. We are grateful. We are grateful for American generosity, and we honor sacrifices of America in Iraq and everywhere, not only in Iraq.

We also need our neighbors, at least some of them, to stop attacking Iraqi democracy. We want them to join us in fighting against terrorism. We want our brothers stopping the media -- at least the official media -- to support terrorism.

We want them to stand with us against terrorism, because terrorism is the enemy of all Arab and Muslim countries in the world.

But we will proceed and we will remember those who helped us in our struggles to establish a democratic Iraq.

And you are first of those people who supported us for this noble wish.

There is in Iraq political progress. We are taking the gun out of Iraqi politics. For the first time, Iraqis are speaking to each other in peaceful dialogue, not with arms.

The majority of Iraqis are committed to the political process. Iraq is a diverse country. They are mostly settling their differences peacefully.

We have agreed a draft constitution. Of course, it is not a perfect document. But I think it is one of the best constitutions in fields -- economic, trade, education, political life. And we hope that we will remain having the support of the United States and, Your Excellency, Mr. President, and other friends in the Arab world and in Europe.

It is clear that we are a young democracy, but our draft constitution has a bill of rights, ensures the equality of all Iraqis before the law, regardless of their gender, creed, religion or ethnicity.

It enshrines separation of powers and involves many checks and balances on the exercise of power. It is the best constitution in the entire region, as we (inaudible). We hope it will be correct.

We are reaching out to some other Iraqi citizens who were not able to participate in the election; I mean our Arab Sunni brothers. We tried and we involved them in the process.