Former US defence secretary Robert Gates insists memoir 'hijacked' by Barack Obama's critics --- Former US defence secretary Robert Gates has insisted his new memoir is "even-handed", accusing opponents of president Barack Obama of misrepresenting it to score political points. -- Mr Gates's book has been widely portrayed as an attack on Mr Obama's war leadership, but the author himself said he had in fact agreed with the major decisions the US president made on Afghanistan. -- He told NBC's Today show he was "disappointed that the book has sort of been hijacked by people along the political spectrum to serve their own purposes, taking quotes out of context". -- And Mr Gates, who served as defence secretary between 2006 and 2011, insisted his memoir, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary of War, was not an attack on the commander-in-chief. -- "I think the book is very even handed. I don't vilify anybody," he said. -- "I make it clear, I have a lot of respect for both President (George W) Bush and President Obama," said Mr Gates, who served under both men as Pentagon chief. -- He said that "what has been lost in the news media is that I actually agreed with virtually every decision President Obama made" on how to handle the US war in Afghanistan. -- But "some people who have a narrative on Obama and the war got out there early with their take on ... what I've written," he told National Public Radio (NPR). - More, at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-14/gates-says-obama-critics-have-hijacked-his-memoir/5198508