While the rest of us concentrate on figuring out implications of the Soviet bloc's collapse, the hard left takes refuge in issues more congenial to its hate-America instincts. Some leftists work on behalf of the Shining Path, others take up the cause of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, Sri Lanka's LTTE, or Timor's Fretilin. In the Middle East, the Polisario, an Algerian-sponsored group representing the mythical Sahrawi people, has become their favorite obscure cause. Of course, its victim-Morocco-is an ally of the United States.
Representative Mervyn M. Dymally (Democrat of California), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, leads the pro-Polisario team, with support from his staff of activists (especially Bernadette Paolo) and a stable of academics-many of them contributors to International Dimensions of the Western Sahara Conflict. Put simply, the authors argue that the United States and Morocco acted in their usual neo-imperialist, hypocritical, and selfish manner. In contrast, of course, the Soviet Union and Algeria acted with restraint and compassion.
Beyond these political inanities, Zoubir and Volman's collection of essays reveals an almost comical incompetence. It's so poorly edited, the final page of the book ends in mid-sentence. It's so outdated, the chapter by Zoubir on Soviet policy predicts that "the Soviets . . . will push more resolutely for a political solution" (this in a book published in 1993!). Indeed, most chapters go no further than 1990, ignoring that the conflict has been largely settled in the interim. Why oh why was this book ever published?
