that president obama made on afghanistan. i believe obama was right in each of these decisions. he also said, i believe the president cared deeply about the troops and their families. i never doubted obama's support for the troops. and i think that's a sentiment that we all recognize to be true. >> the white house press secretary jay carney doing his best to highlight the positive in the bomb shell tell-all book from former defense secretary robert gates. and we're back again with the panel. gates did say i never doubted obama's support for the troops, only his support for their mission. bob, you wrote a detailed lengthy argue about the book earlier this week. your thoughts? >> he really goes after obama in a very direct way. but there's the other side and he's trying to have it both ways. he says nice things about the president. the question really is did the president do a good job in developing his strategy for afghanistan? and i wrote a book on it and spent a couple years looking at the my -- minutia of it and the meetings and notes and