The Hidebeast and her husband did more damage to the Army than any enemy ever could.Two things:
Point one - We may still have to put up with Hitlery when she runs for president. (Boy is this a scary thought.)
Point two - I got out of the Army in 1969 but I witnessed how drugs were taking over then. A relative of mine was in the Army during the Carter years when drugs were everywhere and it took Ronald Reagan to get the Army back on track so I know the Army can shape up. I'm not sure if there is enough of a political will in the Bush administration to do what needs to be done to get this "hunter-killer" Army.
An interesting side point is both my son and daughter have been in the Army in the last 5 years. I got to see my daughter who was always assigned to infantry units get pretty tough in 3 years. My son who was an 11B got pretty good training too. But they've both told me enough horror stories of the support troops to curl my thinning hair.
I was in during those years too. And I concur with your observations. I think we were witnessing the disillusionment over the administration's Vietnam policy, at least to some degree.
Troopers who were in-country from 65-68 at least had some degree of faith that the civilian leadership was making an effort to win the war. Not so post-68. And that disillusionment had to take some form. And the lingering bitterness from that betrayal carried over well into the 70s and beyond. Of course, Jimmy Carter did nothing to alleviate it.
All the same, I think you're right about Bush. He flip-flops too much between the uncompromising conservative ideologue and just another touchy-feely pseduo-lib to have the cojones to straighten out the Army.
Just not part of his agenda.