For starters, there was the perception that the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan amounted to a downgrading of US interests in the Middle East. Coming as it did on the eve of the cataclysmic Arab Spring, the Obama administration has struggled with this unintended consequence of the pivot ever since.
首先，有人认为美军撤出伊拉克和阿富汗实际是美国中东利益衰落的标志。因为恰好发生在灾难性阿拉伯之春革命的前夕，奥巴马政府一直尽全力消除新支点出人意料的后果。政府“幕后领导”一词的设计者只是使问题进一步复杂化。