To the Point

The Reconstruction of Afghanistan

President Bush says Afghanistan will not be forgotten, but while Iraq is getting a billion dollars a week, Afghanistan gets that much in a year. Critics contend that the US and the West are not making good on their promises to restore a country destroyed by a generation of war. While entrepreneurs talk about building hotels and making the deserts bloom, many Afghans lack clean water or adequate sewage. Will even a doubling of US assistance be too little, too late? We speak with a reporter who-s just spent six weeks in Afghanistan, experts on Central Asia and a former UN aid worker about insecurity, a struggling government and expectations that are not being fulfilled, less than two years after the defeat of the Taliban by American forces. Reporter's Notebook: Labor Department-s Alleged Tips for Avoiding Overtime Pay Under proposed new rules to the Fair Labor Standards Act, its first update in 50 years, the Bush Labor Department says 1.3 million workers who never qualified for overtime before will now get it. Organized labor contends that the changes will deny overtime to three times that many, who are getting it now. The AFL-CIO is even running commercials on cable TV. Who wins, and who loses? We hear from the National Association of Manufacturers and a freelance journalist who-s written on The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.