lindsey graham said he'd spoken to mattis and mattis was very concerned about the kurdish fighters the u.s. would be leaving behind and what might happen in syria if the u.s. left. so we know now that mattis had been very concerned about all this. this morning early he decided he needs to speak to the president. he goes to the white house, meets with him at 3:00 this afternoon, tries to get the president apparently to change his mind. the president did not and that's when mattis decided he needed to resign, that he could no longer serve this president of the united states. but there is something else looming out there tonight and this is a potentially imminent decision to also draw down as much as potentially half of the u.s. troops in afghanistan this can be between 5,000 and 7,000 or so depending on how you count mr. trump is making it clear