From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Is a jobless recovery, not a recovery after all?

Hello again, I'm Orman Alney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

Healthcare reform in Afghanistan are getting the headlines, but President Obama's

biggest challenge could be creating jobs. Unemployments at 9.8% the highest in more than 25 years.

Full employment isn't likely again until 2017. We'll hear what it's like to get laid off and how hard it is to get

rehired. What happened to that economic stimulus money? What can the government do now? Instead of

promoting a quick fix, should the focus be on new jobs with long-term usefulness to American society.

On reporter's notebook later on, can the states provide public options for health care reform?

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio

International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation, the John D.

and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation and its campaign for American workers. More at rockfound.org. Hello again, Mormon-Aulney. Back with To the Point. Almost 16 million Americans are unemployed, more than the population of 46 to the 50 states. Should a second stimulus put checks in the mail? What about tax credits for employers

who create new jobs? Will developing markets overseas lead to more or less employment in the

United States? On reporter's notebook, the Obama White House is recruiting Republicans to support

health care reform, and there's a new wrinkle for the public option. First, this news update.

The war in Afghanistan turned eight years old today, and President Obama, in the words of the New York Times, is agonizing about what to do next.

With public anxiety on the increase, some experts think he's being forced to choose between alternatives, neither of which can work.

Winslow Wheeler is a veteran of Capitol Hill,

now director of the Strauss Military Reform Project at the Center for Defense Information. Always good to have

you on our program. Thanks for having me again, Warren. I appreciate it. What are these alternatives,

...