. -- for the bairaq war, there was quite a bit. there was very little planning for the afghan war. act it was a cia plan the president first embraced to link up with the afghan militias and the northern alliance against the taliban. host: here is cleveland. good morning on the republic mine. caller: i was curious if you were able to determine whether his political philosophy was influenced by having been surrounded by so many people, people strongly influenced by certain philosophers and military strategists who would be considered by conservatives. was he influenced by that group? did you agreed they were corrected? guest: that is an interesting question. his relationship with the neocons is in the bottom part of his time a secretary because he ended up surrounded by a number of very prominent members of the neo-conservative community including his deputy, the chief of policy positions at the pentagon. but he himself is not a neo- conservative. many of his views overlap. they depart -- that is in one critical area which is the notion of spreading democracy around the world. he was