Pitt Faculty Experts Available to Provide Post-Election Comment

PITTSBURGH-Donald Goldstein, a professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and best-selling author, says the current Iraq situation and the recent shifts in Congressional leadership parallels the Vietnam War. Just as Vietnam brought down the Johnson administration, the war on Iraq is doing the same to the Republicans in the Bush administration. Comparisons can be drawn between the 1968 Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War and the recent violence in Iraq, and the television news coverage of both wars, says Goldstein. "We just do not seem to learn from our past," Goldstein comments.

"The war in Iraq showed that all politics are not local and, with few exceptions the Republicans lost [Congressional seats] because of it." Had there not been a war in Iraq, Goldstein added, the Republicans would have won yesterday. Goldstein is a leading expert on Pearl Harbor and is available at 412-624-4238 (O) and goldy@pitt.edu, or through Amanda Leff at 412-624-4238 and aleff@pitt.edu.

William Keller, University of Pittsburgh faculty expert on national security, says "The election was clearly a rejection of the Bush administration's policy of 'staying the course' in Iraq." Keller, coeditor of the recently published book Hitting First: Preventive Force in U.S. Security Strategy (University of Pittsburgh Press), says it is not clear how the president will respond given Bush's policies. "The U.S. occupation of Iraq has torn apart the fabric of international relations in the Middle East. Our troops are trying to contain an explosive situation," Keller commented. "Sooner or later it will blow, likely cascading sectarian violence, civil war, and possibly even genocide across the region. Mr. Bush must be made to see that demagoguery and rhetoric will not extricate us from this dilemma," he added. "The only solution is to turn to governments in the Persian Gulf region and to our allies and pursue consummate diplomacy toward a negotiated solution. We can only hope that it is not too late." Keller is the Wesley W. Posvar Chair and director of the Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies at Pitt. He can be reached at 412-624-7399, 412-624-7396 (O), or bkeller@pitt.edu; or through Amanda Leff at 412-624-4238 and aleff@pitt.edu.

For a list of Pitt faculty experts, visit http://www.umc.pitt.edu/m/experts.html.

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11/8/06/tmw