"Only the U.S. was capable of toppling Saddam's dictatorship, a brilliantly executed campaign in which the Kurdish guerrillas, the peshmerga, were the only Iraqis to take casualties fighting with the coalition. The defeat of the terrorists, however, must be largely an Iraqi endeavor."

• 2005-present - President of Iraq and first President elected under Iraq's new constitution
• Founder and Secretary General, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)
• Member, Iraqi Governing Council that negotiated the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), Iraq’s interim constitution
• Former Commander, Peshmerga forces of Kurdistan
• 1991 - Returned to Iraq and negotiated a ceasefire with the Iraqi government
• Sought refuge in Iran after taking part in the Kurdish fight against Saddam Hussein throughout the 1980s
• 1975 - Co-founded the PUK
• Was formerly a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and fought with the party in the 1974-1975 revolution against Iraq’s Ba’athist dictatorship
• 1963 - Led the Kurdish delegation in talks with President Abd-al-salam Arif's government
• 1961 - Joined the Kurdish revolt against the government of Abd-al-Karim Qasim
• 1951 - Was elected to the KDP's central committee at the age of 18
• 1947 - Became a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)
• 1946 - Formed a secret Kurdish student association at the age of 13
• Former journalist and editor, Khabat and Kurdistan

• Born in 1933 in Kelken in Iraq Kurdistan
• Elected for a second term as President of Iraq, thus becoming the first President elected under the country's new Constitution

  Select Publications:

• "We Need American Troops," opinionjournal.com, 9/21/05
• "Pulling the Propaganda Plug," The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 12/5/03
• "The Way Forward," opinionjournal.com, 11/23/03Born in 1933 in Kelkan in Iraq Kurdistan