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[Lee Haslup <biglee AT haslups.com>]

I will eagerly await the posting of a table showing the monetary and 
quasi-monetary incentives offered to the coalition members, but a few 
words of warning:  You will find the data in that area pretty soft, and 
much of it the result of  sloppy, tendentious research.  You should try 
to rely on attributed data offered by well-known organizations and you 
should particularly avoid using data from new and/or little-known 
organizations, especially those that claim impartiality.

It'll be a lot of work and I'm not sure it can be done properly in time 
for the elections (or at all for that matter.)  But feel free to have a 
go at it.  To avoid post hoc ergo propter hoc errors be sure to adjust 
for the background level of international payola -- the money the US 
gives to other countries for this and that, year in and year out, 
regardless of the party affiliation of the resident of the White House.  
For full credit you need to show that the compensation markedly exceeds 
the usual horse-trading that goes on whenever an international coalition 
is formed for purposes other than bloviation and running up diplomatic 
expense accounts.

Finally, don't be too disappointed if you don't change a lot of minds 
about the matter.  The difference between a whore and a high-maintenance 
girl friend is not always discernible by financial analysis.  You would 
need witnesses who saw the Dutch hanging out on a street corner when the 
US swaggered by and heard the offer: "Hey there big boy, you wanna 
invade Iraq?"

BigLee

Michael Czeiszperger wrote:

> On Oct 2, 2004, at 8:26 PM, Lee Haslup wrote:
>
> > What is more interesting is to look at who IS in the coalition and 
> > what level of commitment they have made.  I spent a silly amount of 
> > time tracking down some more-or-less reliable numbers (from 
> > nationmaster.com, www.globalsecurity.org and the CIA world fact 
> > book.)  and I came up with the following:
>
> Isn't there a column missing?  What about how much money the country 
> received to be in the coalition?  (I'm talking about either upfront 
> cash or a piece of the rebuilding contracts later.)
>
> ___________________________________________________________________
> michael at czeiszperger dot org
> Chapel Hill, NC
>
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