CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reports from Afghanistan on the eve of President Obama's announcement to withdraw 30,000 troops.

Bret Stephens, foreign-affairs columnist of the Wall Street Journal, and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) debate the future of the Afghanistan War.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, urges GOP presidential candidates to sign an anti-abortion pledge, but not all of them say they will.

Famed physicist Michio Kaku says Japanese officials still don't have control of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. FULL POST

ONLY ON THE BLOG: The Mysterious Postcard / In The Arena / Behind the Scenes

A postcard arrived recently at 288 Warren Street in Brooklyn, New York. On the front, a charming old house.

On the back, a name, the address, a one cent stamp–and the postmark: Aug. 28, 1912!

And so the mystery began for In The Arena producer Ken Olshansky and his wife, Margot Owett.

We thought you'd enjoy the story as it appeared in The New York Times. CLICK HERE

But where had the postcard been for the past century?

It was postmarked in Brookhaven, on the afternoon of Aug. 28, 1912. But just above the postmark is a hint that it may have been sold more recently at a flea market: A penciled-in “5 —.” A postcard with the same picture and a 1913 postmark was recently available on eBay for $10.

Iraq War veteran Lt. Dan Choi says the fight over same-sex marriage in New York is not an issue of religion but of love. FULL POST

Mideast expert Fawaz Gerges says Monday's address by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad threw fuel on the fire of dissent.

The Number of the Day is 15 percent.

That’s how much existing housing sales fell in May compared with the same month last year.

The reason, according to the trade group National Association of Realtors?

"Spiking gasoline prices along with widespread severe weather hurt house shopping in April, leading to soft figures for actual closings in May," said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun.

Oh yeah, and the housing market is in a whole lot of hurt, too. Prices are affordable for the first time in a generation for many metro areas, interest rates are at unbelievable lows, and professional investors are making a fortune in housing right now snapping up distressed properties.

The rest of us?

People are afraid to get stuck with a big asset whose price is falling, that they can’t unload to move for your job. Or maybe they are itching to buy, but suddenly don’t qualify for the loan after missing a few credit card payments during the recession.

Or, to buy a new house they have to sell the old one, and like millions of Americans are underwater on the loan and don’t have the cash to pay the bank at closing.

Gas prices and weather? Probably.

A dismal housing market? Definitely. FULL POST

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today's OFF-SET questions is economist, author and syndicated columnist Ben Stein.

He's the son of the economist and writer Herbert Stein. After graduating from Columbia University, Yale Law School and studying in the graduate school of economics at Yale, Ben Stein worked as an economist at The Department of Commerce, a  poverty lawyer in New Haven and Washington, D.C., a trial lawyer in the field of trade regulation at the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., and a college professor at a number of universities.

In 1973 and 1974, he was a speech writer and lawyer for Richard Nixon at The White House and then for Gerald Ford.  He has written a lengthy diary for twenty years for The American Spectator. For many years he wrote a column for The New York Times Sunday Business Section. He has written, co-written and published thirty books, including seven novels, but mostly about finance. His latest non-fiction book, along with his co-author, Phil DeMuth, is titled, "The Wiley Little Book of Alternative Investments."

He is a frequent guest In The Arena, and is scheduled to appear on Tuesday, June 21, 2011.

Now that the 2012 campaign has started, the American people are hearing the constant drumbeat that slashing state budgets, reducing the federal budget and lowering the deficit, and reducing taxes will lead new jobs. For those of us without economic backgrounds–a putting government jobs aside–do those measures create jobs? What will create the millions of jobs needed to get the country moving again?

There is no well-known theory under which this medicine would create jobs. However, the alternative, to allow the deficit and the debt to grow out of control is extremely damaging.

An obvious idea, not currently under consideration, to raise taxes, seems to have been ruled out. FULL POST

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today's OFF-SET questions is Nik Wallenda, who represents the seventh generation of the legendary Flying Wallenda family of acrobats.

In October, 2008, he walked and bicycled across a highwire some 12 stories above the ground in Newark, New Jersey, setting the Guinness Book of Records world record for the longest and highest bicycle on a highwire. Just one of his records. Wallenda appears in the new TV program, "Life On A Wire," which premieres June 22nd on Discovery.

On June 4, 2011, you and your mother, Delilah,  walked a high wire between two towers of the Condado Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  A wire stretched 121 feet above the ground. No net. This is the walk that killed your great grandfather, Karl Wallenda, in March, 1978.

This was the most emotional walk of my career! It was especially hard as I walked over the exact area where my great-grandfather lost his life. FULL POST