I perceive it to be a changing list of priorities for the United States. I think nevertheless that the United States still perceive its NATO allies as critical to what they used to call “pivot”, until they changed that name, because they still, as they did with a number of interventions up to now, see their NATO allies as essential for that refocus on other parts of the world. Nevertheless, I think the alliance has been slow, and continues to be slow, in changing its nature. You still have a number of allies who see the purpose of the alliance as largely to lock the Americans into Europe, and you're now in a situation in which there's real tension with that model as those allies are still try to keep and grasp the Americans. That creates a tension that I don't think is conducive to a fully functioning, proper relationship.
On October 16th, 2012. See this statement in context.