Iraq may be a long way from Southeast Asia, but talk of war is real around dinner tables in the tropics. Some expatriate Americans are expressing embarrassment over the aggression of President George W. Bush's administration.
Journalists and aid workers are heading in droves to Britain for courses on surviving hostile environments, including chemical warfare.
Asians are directly affected by the prospect of war in Iraq, too.
More than 50,000 Thai workers are in the Middle East, half of those in Israel, where a few came under fire by accident recently. Their plight in the event of war in Iraq is uncertain.
The same holds true for the large migrant worker populations from the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and elsewhere in the region.
The Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Thai Senate, led by Senator Kraisak Choonhavan, has concluded that war in Iraq could impact directly on Thailand's economy, assuming oil price rises of about 40 per cent.
