The fact that Nicaragua is a member of the mismatched coalition supporting the U.S. war on Iraq has become an endless source of banter in my country. A recent e-mail forwarded to me titled "Letter from President Enrique Bolanos to President Bush" outlined the plan that the highest authorities in Nicaragua, the poorest country in Latin America, after Haiti, would have devised to support the coalition forces: "1. We will cut the water supply to our major cities to collect 100,000 barrels that the coalition will be able to use as chemical and biological weapons. "2. We will support the air campaign by sending to Iraq 300 million mosquitoes, from our ample supply, to infect the Iraqi troops with malaria and dengue fever. "3. We will infiltrate the Iraqi Cabinet with some of our financial advisors to starve the Iraqi army and Iraqi people to death." Humor underscores the feeling most Nicaraguans have about our government's willingness to join the coalition put together by Bush: It is an empty gesture, a sort of political prostitution aimed at obtaining badly needed funds for our country. Bolanos is, in fact, meeting with President Bush in Washington this week, hoping to claim his reward: more than $500 million in aid from Washington. In an article by Condoleezza Rice, published March 31 in Managua's local newspaper, El Nuevo Diario, she tries to glorify the status of the needy countries that make up most of this coalition by saying they represent 230 million people with a combined gross national product of $22 million. The U.S. national security advisor goes on to mention the Estonian prime minister's support and mentions the Czech and Slovak brigades in Kuwait. She underlines the fact that, although some nations do not have the means to participate in the operations to free Iraq, they share a willingness to fight terrorism: "Together we are determined to do everything in our power to prevent Saddam Hussein or terrorists using Saddam's weapons to repeat what happened on Sept. 11 on a larger scale." Good try, but considering the weight of self-interest in international politics, I doubt that Estonia, Poland, Nicaragua, Solomon Islands, Tonga or Bulgaria are worried about Al Qaeda's terrorists acts. What they share is their preoccupation that the United States would pull the plug on financial aid if they were to dissent from the Bush administration on Iraq. So we could say this coalition, with a few exceptions, consists mainly of new and old "banana republics" that have nothing to lose in joining the U.S. but their self-respect, a commodity that is hard to maintain when financial survival is at stake. One cannot help but be saddened to see the U.S. using this kind of economic pressure to rally international support for war. A friend of mine, Andres Perez B, made a good point in a recent article. He compared Saddam Hussein with a rat and international law with the edifice that shelters the different nations of the world. "To neutralize a rat within the edifice of international law requires the same care you and I would have in dealing with a rat in our homes. Neither of us would choose to attack the rat with dynamite or hand grenades because we wouldn't be willing to endanger the foundations of our homes, or the life of our families." I could not agree more. In building a coalition using the "carrot and stick" principle, the Bush administration has diminished not only the U.S. but the countries that see their participation as a business venture that eventually will pay off. Our president has been asking people to volunteer to go to Iraq to, in his own words, "make a few bucks." Given Nicaragua's 60% unemployment rate, I am sure a few desperate Nicaraguans will end up dying in this war. For 45 years, my country lived under a dynasty of tyrants supported, armed and financed by the United States. It seems ironic now that we should be participating in a coalition to get rid of this one. My country once had some pride. Now we have been forced by want to give this up too. There surely won't be a better world as a result of this war. * Gioconda Belli is a Nicaraguan poet and novelist.