and brigadier general mark kimmitt, a contributor to al jazeera english, who served in the middle east and worked with robert gates at the pentagon. also joining us is kevin baron, executive editor of defense one, a division of atlantic media, which covers u.s. defense and national security. kevin has covered and travel extensively with defense secretary gates and joins us from washington d.c. it's a pleasure to have you all with us. an excerpt from the book focuses on a meeting in march 2011 where gates questions president obama's leadership and relationship and writes: . >> the reference to the commander is david petraeus. general, let's start with you - should a former official criticise a sitting president. critics said he shouldn't, and certainly those comments about hamid karzai will damage a relationship that is problematic. >> well, first of all, i don't think that we should be surprised that this book came out. three years after stepping down as the director of the c.i.a., robert gates wrote his book "from behind the shadows", and was very, very forthright in that book as well