Outstanding post.
BTW, the site is still plagued with “It’s Bush’s fault” cheering squads. I guess they’re still attempting to convince others he had a trace of conservatism.
Fact is that disaster led us directly to the Obola administration.
My active date was in late October 1976. By mid February 77 I was on board ship. Morale was screwed up as was discipline Navy wide. It was a time when if you wanted out {it was volunteer military} all you had to do was go AWOL 31 days and have your command list you as a deserter. You might see a week or two Brig time or not wherever you turned yourself in at and you were out of the service. Lot's of people did it. By roughly early 78 that was put to a screeching halt as it should have been. You got your AWOL tacked on plus you did the time for a General DC. The walk off policy began under Rummy. By late 1980 significant changes were underway at least in the Navy. I credit that likely to a change in SECNAV.
Yea I know it was post Nam era but still morale and discipline has to be there. Picking Rummy was a mistake for Bush. Murtha's witch hunts ran roughshod over troops under fire on the word often of Iraqi's. That's BS. You back your troops in combat.
The Ford & Bush GOP-E vs the Reagan GOP were as different as night and day in policy and operational philosophies both domestic and foreign policy wise. Hindsight now shows us which one was right.