Bombshell New Book News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Jenna: bombshell new book by former secretary of defense robert gates comes out next week. it is called, "duty, memoirs of a secretary of war." gates is critical of both the bush and obama administrations as far as we can tell from the exerts, one of the big headlines is his opinion of president obama's handling the war in afghanistan. he writes about a meeting in 2011 saying this, quote, as i sat there i thought the president doesn't trust his commander, can't stand karzai, don't believe in his own strategy and doesn't consider the war to be his. for him it is all about getting out. right now...

Republican one. >> you know, i think that is a really key point here because it is not like you're dealing with a disgruntled former staffer, aide, who finally feels like this is their opportunity to tell everything. you're dealing with a guy with a pretty stellar reputation and mildly partisan at best. as you mentioned he served administration of both parties. it is pretty well-respected. just the detail in which he goes into a lot of these meetings and stuff i think is very telling, especially in terms of his conversations with joe biden. jon: well the book is not even out yet but it is alre...

Now you see al qaeda on the rise. jon: overruling military commanders due to politics. does that happen in every administration, charlie? >> well, of course, and you know, the system is designed to work that way. the basic fundamental founding of our country is based on the idea that we have political people make the decisions about the military and keeps the military in check and that's fine but the problem comes when you get into a situation where the decisions that are being made are so strictly politically motivated and, kind of dismissive of the, you know, military realities on the ground...

Did not agree with what the admin was doing? >> i don't think it would have because of his fundamental, gates's fundamental insight. the president didn't think this was his war and wanted to get out. i haven't read the book like everybody else commenting on it today but from the excerpts we've seen i think the real insights that gates provides is that president obama simply is not concerned with american national security. the notion that politics could trump a national security decision can only occur in the mind of somebody who simply doesn't pay much attention to national security. i think ...

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