Assessing Dukakis, Bush and Jackson

I take issue with Stuart Spencer’s column (“Why Bush Is Recalling the Jimmy Carter Years,” Opinion, May 8) dredging up the Carter presidency in order to emphasize a so-called lack of foreign policy experience in Democratic candidates. Let’s look at where Ronald Reagan’s “expertise” has led us: a tremendous “victory” in Grenada to draw our attention away from the deaths of U.S. Marines in Lebanon; the Iran-Contra debacle; the Noriega fiasco; horrendous national debt because of pie-in-the-sky ideas, e.g. Star Wars and other insanities to keep defense contractors happy.

Compare Carter’s Camp David accord between Israel and Egypt with this Administration’s failures in the region. Compare Reagan’s failure to free our Mideast hostages today. At least Carter knew where the hostages were.

I intend to vote for the Democratic nominee in November instead of Reagan’s clone.

ROBERT V. MILBY

Monterey Park