President Barack Obama's determination to get U.S. troops out of the Middle East and Central Asia is much clearer than are his purposes in repositioning U.S. military assets into the Pacific. He seems at times to be a man fleeing a burning building looking for a calmer place to go.
But his geographic "pivot" can work if Obama defines his goals realistically and pursues them with a combination of firmness and opportunism. By design or otherwise, he is locating pressure points and acquiring bargaining chips in Asia that can be useful in fashioning a more stable U.S. relationship with China.
This contrasts with his first-term failure in dealing with Iran, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other challenges where he armed himself only with good intentions and pious wishes before hitting walls of resistance. No wonder he longs to wash his hands of the troubled, ungrateful Middle East (which will not let him go that easily).