Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan’s first elected president, in a very long time, in about five-thousand years, ever: "In a brief inaugural address, Karzai expressed his thanks to the Afghan people, who defied Taliban threats to participate in largely peaceful national elections in October, and to the United States, which led the international coalition that ousted the Islamic fundamentalist regime in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks."