Robert Gates

Actually, I finally brought about bipartisan action in retribution.

Well, I think, first of all, I'm pretty blunt and candid about the mess in the place.

And as I say, it's really not just about the fact that I was brought to Washington to try and salvage two wars, but I had to wage war against the Congress, against my own building, the Department of Defense.

and at times against the White House, often just to get the right things done in terms of support for our men and women serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, and even such horrible things as cutting the defense budget.

Well, I'm not surprised.

I've been around too long for that.

But I think that the... I think, you know, people have kind of proven one of the points in the book, which is Washington is so polarized that absolutely everything

is used to prove one political point or another.

So people have cherry-picked individual quotes if it supports their position.

So there's stuff in this book.

If you're for Bush, there's stuff.

If you're against him, there's material.

Same thing with President Obama.

But I think it's a very honest account.

And I basically wrote it for all those kids who served to show them, among other things, the passion and strong feelings that both presidents had about these wars and about the tough decisions they had to face.

Right.

And what a revelation.

And what a revelation.

I'm sure this comes as new news to the entire American people.

What do you, I mean, is there a sense... Where I get into it is in the specifics.