Appointed in June, Iraq's interim Prime Minister has played the tough guy, reinstating the death penalty, backing U.S.-led assaults on Najaf and Fallujah, imposing martial law. Allawi, with security in tow at Baghdad airport, vowed to work for a "united Iraq where brotherhood and justice prevail." Next step: convince skeptical Iraqi voters he's no U.S. stooge.
For sticking to his guns (literally and figuratively), for reshaping the rules of politics to fit his ten-gallon-hat leadership style and for persuading a majority of voters that he deserved to be in the White House for another four years, George W. Bush is TIME's 2004 Person of the Year