|
New York, NY (CBS) -- THE BALANCING ACT FOR OBAMA ON IRAQ
On his visit to Iraq, Senator Barack Obama as planned has been briefed by General David Petraeus, who took him on a helicopter tour of the improved military situation there. And he's met with Iraq's political leaders, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki --- all very gracious and polite.
"Mr. Prime Minister, thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much...," said Obama.
And, said Obama...
Obama: We had a very constructive discussion.
Reporter: Did you discuss about troop withdrawals?
Obama: We had a very constructive discussion.
On that subject, reportedly Iraq's Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi said it would be great if American combat troops could be withdrawn by 2010, as Obama promises --- but al-Hashimi refuses to endorse any specific timetable for doing so.
"No, no --- I don't want in fact to put any rigid or hard time scale on that," said Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi.
If it weren't for the successful U.S. military surge in Iraq, said Senator John McCain:
"Senator Obama could not have gone to Iraq as he did, because he opposed the surge. It was the surge that succeeded. It was the surge that is winning this war," said McCain.
That's the way to bring the troops home, said McCain.
"When you win wars, troops come home. And we are winning. And the fact is, if we had done what Senator Obama wanted to do, we would have lost. And we would have faced a wider war. And we would have had greater problems in Afghanistan and in the entire region," said McCain.
Being consistent with his own policy, yet supportive of the troops and adapting to change --- says Richard Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations --- is a tough political trick for Obama to pull off.
"...And pulling that off is obviously the political challenge in the immediate time frame that he faces," said Haass.
CATCHING THE WORLD'S TOP WAR CRIMES FUGITIVE
After 13 years of hiding out as a hunted war crimes fugitive, the former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic --- accused architect of ethnic cleansing massacres --- has been captured near Belgrade.
"This is the most important arrest in the case of the former Yugoslavia," said Prof. Paul Williams of American University.
Paul Williams, war crimes expert and professor at American University.
"Karadzic is at the top of the pyramid when it comes to assigning culpability for the genocide in Bosnia," said Williams.
Radovan Karadzic used to say that anything he did was not genocide, but part of a civil war.
"Why they take one side in a civil war? And I do think that they have created a precedent that may endanger world peace," said Radovan Karadzic, in 1995.
It was worse than that, said Paul Williams.
"Radovan Karadzic was ideologically committed to the genocide of the people of Bosnia. He was the one who drafted the master plan for ethnically cleansing Bosnia," said Williams.
And to the extent that it was worse, said Williams, he made it so.
"Karadzic took what was otherwise a low-level civil conflict in the former Yugoslavia and turned it into a genocide," said Williams.
The deadly siege of Sarajevo was his doing.
"This is an individual whose nickname was 'The Butcher of Sarajevo,'" said Williams.
Bosnia-Herzegovina is now ruled by a three-person presidency. Haris Silajdzic is chairman. The arrest of Karadzic doesn't end the ethnic struggles there, he said ... although it is a comfort to some.
"This is a relief for the families of the victims of this genocide," said Haris Silajdzic, chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
He said Karadzic was hidden by people of like mind who would resume the killing, if given the chance.
"Milosevic is dead, Karadzic is arrested --- but their project lives on in Bosnia-Herzegovina," said Silajdzic.
Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military chief, remains at large.
MED SCHOOLS FACE A "SILVER TSUNAMI"
The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that that the number of elderly Americans will nearly double to 71 million by the year 2030, leaving one physician trained in geriatric care for every 7,665 seniors.
That's going to be one busy doctor. In other words, folks: We're not prepared.
"We're looking at a national health crisis in terms of taking care of our older adults," said Gavin Hougham, John A. Hartford Foundation.
And we better do something about it.
Already, we in the United States are feeling the effects of what's been called the "age bomb," says Gavin Hougham of the John A. Hartford Foundation.
"We have a shortage of geriatric nurses, geriatric social workers. Pharmacists are undertrained, surgeons and many other specialities in internal medicine," Hougham.
The government knows what's going to happen, but acts as if it doesn't know.
"Right now, the Medicare program pays the stipends for all residents, except pediatrics, in every specialty. But they're not requiring that they have any geriatrics experience. How irrational is that?" asked Dr. Richard Besdine, director of the geriatrics division at Brown University Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island.
"The Medicare program needs to be investing into the training of physicians who are actually going to take care of old people," said Besdine.
Why aren't we doing what needs to be done? The Hartford Foundation focuses on aging and health --- and Gavin Hougham is senior program officer there.
"Some of the barriers are relatively low status in the field --- there's still a stigma attached to older people within medicine --- and, levels of pay are lower than in other fields of medicine," said Hougham.
Hougham called it a national crisis, and Dr. Besdine said he's right.
"It's not hyperbole to say this is a crisis," said Besdine.
TURNING TO GECKOS TO MAKE A NEW BANDAGE
Two scientists have developed a new kind of biomedical surgical tape. For inspiration, they turned to the little lizard called the gecko --- and not for its demonstrated ability to sell insurance.
"We turned to the gecko, because it has this wonderful ability to attach to vertical surfaces and walk up walls,” said Dr. Jeffrey Karp, with Harvard Medical School.
Professor Robert Langer of MIT and Dr. Jeffrey Karp of Harvard Medical School used computer technology to sculpt tiny hills and valleys on the surface of a bio-rubber bandage. The gecko showed them how.
"It has these nanopillars on its surface --- so, millions and millions of pillars that are a hundred times smaller than a human hair. And this increases the surface area of contact and gives it this ability to walk," said Karp.
That's what gave Karp and Langer their idea...
"What we've developed is a biomedical adhesive that's a tape-based adhesive for internal application. There's nothing quite like it right now in the clinic," said Karp.
It can do one thing geckos can't.
"Once you place it, you want it to remain there for a while. Whereas the gecko needs to be able to de-adhere from a surface. Otherwise, we'd see a lot of unhappy geckos stuck to walls and vertical surfaces," said Karp.
We never see that, do we?
"You align the tissue once and place our adhesive tapes on --- this could significantly save a lot of time during operations," said Karp.
And other possible applications.
"...For sealing tissues, for wound healing, or as a drug-delivery patch that can deliver localized drugs or growth factors to internal tissues," said Karp.
For which Langer and and Karp are most grateful to the little gecko...
"The next thing you know, I'm like invited to their wedding or whatever. One bloke actually asked me to be his best man. Dear, oh, dear..." as the Geico commercial featuring the tiny gecko explains.
|
