Coalition of the bribed and coerced?

The Baltimore Sun has a front-page article (at least it was on the front page of the First Edition that I purchased on Saturday) about a deal with Poland that allowed them to purchase F-16 fighters from Lockheed Martin, as well as promised Poland $6 Billion in buisness investment. The contention is that Poland based it's decision to participate in the coalion in Iraq on the deal. It quotes a California Republican who refered to that type of payment as an economic bribe, although it doesn't provide much supporting evidence that there is a direct link between Poland's participation and the deal.

They do say that the deal illustrates the benefits - both political and economic -enjoyed by a country that chose to fight beside the United States.. Yes - we take care of those countries that help us. That isn't exactly a bad thing or a scandle.

What is most interesting about this article is that it somehow merited front page placement on the Sunday paper, despite little content - while I never remember seeing the Iraqi Oil-For-Food scandle, where the UN and France stole tons of money from starving Iraqis with Saddam's help, on the front page of the Sun. The countries that had financial incentives NOT to participate in the war are much closer to bribes than deals the US gave to those that did.

Then again, this isn't surprising considering that the Sun ran a headline in the Sunday paper last year comparing the Iraqi invasion to Vietnam less than a week after it started.