Experts: Peace will not come overnight

University experts tempered their happiness over prospects of peace last night with warnings that peace will not be accomplished overnight. Speaking shortly before Iraq officially agreed to accept all United Nations resolutions in withdrawing from Kuwait, several professors said they welcomed the end of the war but said several problems remain. They said the U.S. and its allies must still work to stabilize the region and must still worry about Saddam Hussein's government. They added that rebuilding Kuwait will be equally difficult. Daniel Pipes, director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute -- a campus-based think tank for United States foreign policy -- said last night he was "very pleased" with the ceasefire announcement, but indicated he was perhaps even more impressed with the success of the allied military campaign. "With all due reservations that things could change, at the moment it looks like a very carefully planned, thoroughly planned American effort has led to an overwhelming military victory -- the sort of victory you don't often see," Pipes said. Other faculty members said they were pleased the war appears over but said they were still unhappy with U.S. involvement in the Middle East. History Professor Robert Engs said although the ceasefire is "wonderful," his happiness over the end of Gulf war is not based on support for the war itself. "I hate people killing people," Engs said last night. "When people stop killing people, then I'm happy." Engs said he wished the U.S. had given sanctions an opportunity to work and he questioned the motives behind Middle East intervention. He also said he saw little indication of any improvement in the region resulting from the conflict. "I hope all Americans will look at this and say 'That's what we do with the billions of dollars we spend,' " Engs said. "It's awesome. It's also appalling." Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology George Koelle -- an expert on the effects of chemical weapons -- said last night he was delighted with the President's announcement of a ceasefire. But he cautioned that much work remains to be done in the region. "I think it's gone beautifully," Koelle said. "The number of allied casualties, it's just unbelievable -- it's infintesimal." Koelle said he was surprised Iraq has not employed chemical weapons, but suspected the U.S. secretly threatened severe retaliation if Iraq were to use the weapons on the battlefield. Koelle added that although chemical weapons production facilities were probably badly damaged by allied bombing efforts, Iraq is likely to have large supplies still in storage. University experts said thoughts must now turn to the task of rebuilding and improving the Gulf region, goals which they said will require great effort. "The challenge in Iraq's future is for Iraq to have a government that is not aggresive, not too weak, not too strong, that moderates, that balances Iran as a power, that doesn't repress its own population -- and that's a tall order," Pipes said. "I don't see that that sort of happy solution is around the corner, but there's a profound shakeup of Iraq that suggests the possibility of change, and given how bad it was, it's highly likely that change will be for the better." Earlier in the evening, Political Science lecturer Adam Garfinkle warned that the United States could be using the ceasefire as a ploy to move supplies to the front lines in preparation for an assault on Baghdad. However, as of early this morning, his theory did not come to pass as U.S. troops moved into defensive positions and awaited Washington's next orders. (CUT LINE) Please see CAUTION, page 9 CAUTION, from page 1

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