I don’t think you understand how a cold war battle plan works.
It’s 97.5 % Rhetorical exchanges.
If you see a retraction of the comment, then he had a brain fart, but I don’t think that is what it was. Because the comment is a folksy and inaccurate statement.
Less experienced officers from countries like China or Iran as often prone to making statements like that in a public forum, but not US officers.
So either he was drinking and made a mistake, or it was intentional.
This isn't so complicated.
It is a pretty straight forward statement.
"“We’re looking inside our own readiness models to look at things that we haven’t had to look at for 20 years, frankly, about basing and lines of communication and sea lanes,” Gen. Martin Dempsey, America’s top military officer, said at the Aspen Security Forum Thursday evening. “What the military does when faced with these crises is – our job is preparedness, deterrence and readiness.” In addition to its own plans, Dempsey said the U.S. military is having “conversations with our NATO allies about increasing their capability and readiness” and that there’s a “very active” ongoing process and debate about how best to provide support to Ukraine."
Good, I'm glad they are, and glad they said it. He said they haven't had to look so hard at such things in 20 years, now they are looking hard, which means that they perceive a real threat from Russia for the first time in 20 years, and perhaps they are seeing some value in some old elements that might not be totally useless for a complete view.
"Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, America’s top military officer, said at the Aspen Security Forum", I doubt he was drunk, but thanks for the melodrama.