>> gates was? >> yeah. >> yeah. >> but he says he couldn't get anything done. and i think, you know, as you read through his complaints, what you see is really just a lack of leadership on the part of the command er in chief. >> he supported the troops, but he didn't support his own strategy. not the surge in 2009 but against the advice of robert gates and david petraeus, the military commander at the time, he put a deadline on all withdrawal. meaning he undermined his own war effort and undermined the troops he was sending into afghanist afghanistan. >> kim, what about this issue that he talks about where hillary clinton and president obama both acknowledged in a meeting that their opposition to the iraq surge in 2007 had been political? i think we more or less knew that too, although to see it phrased like that and acknowledged is nonetheless telling confirmation of detail.