Iraq - US plans $400m reward for allies

Boy, the BBC don't even try and hide their bias in this article.

US President George W Bush is asking Congress for $400m (£215m) to reward a number of countries that sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq.

A White House spokesman said the money would "assist nations which have taken political and economic risks".

The fund is part of a $80bn war funding request President Bush will send to Congress next week.

It is thought the money could prove an incentive for countries to stay in Iraq. Several nations have withdrawn.

Thought by whom? Obviously by the BBC.

The BBC is using John Kerry's old line, the coalition of the bribed. But don't you usually bribe people with money first and then they do your bidding and not the other way around?

Instead of reporting the news the BBC continue to speculate.

Officials declined to say which other nations would benefit, but there has been suggestion that the fund will help to Eastern European nations, such as Ukraine, Hungary, Romania and the Baltic states.

[A suggestion from whom? The BBC?]

It could also be used as an incentive not to leave the coalition in Iraq. Spain, Singapore, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Thailand, the Philippines, Norway and Honduras have all pulled out.

And "it could also be" exactly what the White House says it is.

The fund, called the Solidarity Initiative, will benefit countries "promoting freedom around the world", Mr McClellan said in a statement.

Then the BBC repeat more of John Kerry's talking points that the US did not reach out to other countries.

Democratic Sen Joseph Biden of Delaware, the ranking minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the plan was indicative of the administration's inability to attract more well-to-do nations to the coalition at the start of the conflict.

"It's kind of a shame," he told the Associated Press news agency.

"The reason we're having to do this is that we never reached out to those who have the ability and capacity to do this to begin with," he said.

Notice how the BBC repeat the Democrats talking points.

The BBC want you to forget that there were 18 UN resolutions before the US took action.

They and Biden also conveniently fail to mention that some of those "more well-to-do nations" got more well-to-do by being bribed by Saddam not to join the coalition in the first place.
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