Chuck Hagel: “Maintaining ready forces is a priority.”

It is a measurement. But I don't think it is the measurement. I mean, I was in a war with a lot of body counts every day. We lost everyone.

One would have to suspect the motive behind the effort to put together this panel.

This is so unpredictable. And we've never seen anything quite like this in our lifetime, so there is no playbook here.

It just feeds into all that instability, and unrest, and unpredictability, which makes a damn dangerous world.