believe in his own policy, the surge in afghanistan, you can see it by his decisions. his decisions to send the troops there on a slow schedule and bring them back literally in the middle of the fighting season in order to have an impact on the 2012 election. he wanted to be able to say i'm bringing our boys home even in the middle of the fighting season in 2012. what's interesting to me is that some gates' insiders have told me this book was essentially ready before the 2012 election. and gates made a deliberate decision to delay its publication until well after the incendiary charges intrude into the election. t i think that's a statement about his character.e but it also says something about president obama that he -- once having made this courageous decision to send additional troops to afghanistan, did not follow through in a way that yoa would have anticipated. but instead used their presence in the country for political purpose by bringing them home prematurely. >> how do you think the president comes off? are there enough contradictions in this book that he comes out pretty well?f?