1. Across the board opposition declared against the government's proposed Mental Health Bill changes.
The Guardian Saturday, 18th November 2006
Charities vow to challenge new mental health bill
David Brindle
Charities and groups representing care professionals warned yesterday that the government faces a bitter fight over its mental health bill. The legislation aims to introduce powers of compulsory community treatment and enable preventive detention of people deemed to have dangerous and severe personality disorders.
Ministers said the bill, published yesterday, was essential to improve the safety of patients and the public. But the Mental Health Alliance, which brings together 78 organisations ranging from the Law Society to the Royal College of Nursing, declared the measure "flawed and profoundly disappointing".
Andy Bell, who chairs the alliance, said: "The legislation falls far short of what is needed and does not truly reflect the needs of those who have to live and work with it. It introduces new powers for services without the necessary safeguards for patients."
The bill is the government's third attempt to bring in the new powers for England and Wales in a process that began with a review of the law ordered eight years ago. Two previous draft bills, each seeking to establish wholly new legal structures, were abandoned in the face of fierce opposition. The new measure is less ambitious, seeking only to amend the existing 1983 Mental Health Act.
http://society.guardian.co.uk/socialcare/story/0,,1951251,00.html
2. Disaster in Iraq acknowledged by Blair and Margaret Hodge.
The Guardian Saturday 18th November 2006
Intervention in Iraq 'pretty much of a disaster' admits Blair, as minister calls it his 'big mistake'
Tania Branigan, political correspondent
· Downing Street plays down slip in TV interview · Hodge criticises 'moral imperialism' in speechTony Blair conceded last night that western intervention in Iraq had been a disaster. In an interview with Al-Jazeera, the Arabic TV station, the prime minister agreed with the veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost when he suggested that intervention had "so far been pretty much of a disaster".
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,,1951267,00.html
3. International force, i.e., NATO, cannot succeed alone in Afghanistan.
The Guardian Saturday, 18th November 2006
UN chief: Nato cannot defeat Taliban by force
Declan Walsh in Kabul and Richard Norton-Taylor
Official says alliance failing in Afghanistan as Blair admits Iraq is a 'disaster'
The funeral in Nairn of Flight Sergeant Al Squires, who was killed in Afghanistan. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA
Nato "cannot win" the fight against the Taliban alone and will have to train Afghan forces to do the job, the UN's top official in the country warned yesterday.
"At the moment Nato has a very optimistic assessment. They think they can win the war," warned Tom Koenigs, the diplomat heading the UN mission in Afghanistan. "But there is no quick fix."
In forthright comments which highlight divisions between international partners as Nato battles to quell insurgency, Mr Koenigs said that training the fledgling Afghan national army to defeat the Taliban was crucial. "They [the ANA] can win. But against an insurgency like that, international troops cannot win."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1951222,00.html
4. George Bush's Vietnam visit reminds everyone throughout the world about the previous decade and one-half long intervention that ended in failure destroying the US. No lessons were learned here by the US.
The Guardian Saturday, 18th November 2006
'Long march of history' comforts Bush in Vietnam
Suzanne Goldenberg in Hanoi
· Iraq refuses to move off agenda during Asian visit
· Former enemies promote economic cooperation
The US president, George Bush reviews a guard of honour at the presidential palace in Hanoi at the start of his visit to Vietnam. Photograph: Julian Abram Wainwright/EPA
George Bush struggled yesterday to escape the shadows of wars past and present in Vietnam and Iraq, holding up his presence in Hanoi as proof of the possibilities of reconciliation.
His visit comes as America is expanding its relationship with Vietnam from trade to military cooperation and joint efforts to fight avian flu. But President Bush, a product of the Vietnam war generation who did his military service in the Texas air national guard, seemed at times overwhelmed by the sheer significance of his presence in the capital of America's erstwhile communist enemy.