"Let me say the conclusion that the Army is broke or the Army is stretched severely thin, we don’t agree with, um, ‘thank you very much for your point of view, but we don’t agree,’ because today’s Army without a question is the most capable, best trained, best equipped, best led and most experienced force this nation has fielded in well over a decade, so I can tell you the Army is performing magnificently."

Does that "well over a decade" caveat strike anyone else as rather odd? Basically, he is saying that the Army suffered from the "peace dividend" in the early 1990's, but that the force of the 1980's was more capable, better trained, better equipped, better led, and more experienced than the one we have today.

Last year we had the highest retention rate in the Army we’ve had in five years ...

Pay no attention to the stop loss orders [1,2,3,4] ...

[From 4] The Army's Stop-Loss program, initiated in November 2002, allows it to indefinitely extend the term of active duty soldiers past their scheduled release date.

That means that for thousands of soldiers, the contract they signed pledging 8 years of service no longer holds any weight.