At Arlington National Cemetery this past Memorial Day, President Obama, after *** laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, stopped at Section 60, containing graves of U. S. troops killed most recently in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It was a reminder of *** the grim backdrop to the decision he will make on how many of the 100,000 U. S. troops in Afghanistan to begin withdrawing in July.

Mr. Obama announced the July start with a withdraw for the withdrawal when he presented his overall strategy for Afghanistan in December of 2009.

Even as the president and military commanders point to successes in pushing back Taliban controlling control in key areas, military commanders are worried about climbing casaulty casualty figures.

Like other presidents who have directed unpopular wars, Mr. Obama has had no shortages shortage of advice from members of Congress.

Democrat John Kerry heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. " While the United States has *** genuine national security interest interests in Afghanistan, our current commitment, in troops and in dollarsit's , is neither proportional to our interest nor interests or sustainable in my judgementjudgment. "

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham last week called the current U. S. and NATO model in Afghanistan " the ticket home" for U. S. troops.

Appearing on NBC's " Meet the Press" , he cautioned against any accelerated U. S. withdraw withdrawal despite rising anti-war centiment sentiment in the U. S. Congress. " If we accelerate withdraw withdrawal right now because *** we are war weary, we're gonna lose this war. "

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