U.S. has limited incentives for shoring up Iraq coalition

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/12/06/national1147EST0490.DTL

12-06) 08:47 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --

President Bush and his top aides are cajoling, imploring and even sweet-talking allies into staying the course in Iraq after a month of deadly ambushes.

For now, the strategy seems to be working. Allies last week said they would not withdraw troops despite well-organized attacks on Spanish, Italian, Japanese and South Korean forces. But there are limits to what the president can offer as new incentives to jittery "coalition of the willing" leaders who have seen their ratings plunge at home.

"Those who joined the coalition expect certain benefits of being allies. And the surprising thing is how little they have gotten so far," said Ivo Daalder of the Brookings Institution.

"In every single one of these countries, public opinion is strongly against the war, strongly against participation in the coalition. Really nothing that the administration can do at this point is going to change the internal dynamic that exists in all these countries," Daalder said.
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