To rich Kuwaitis the prospect of war close by is not enough to disrupt their pampered lives, reports Jack Fairfeather
A 180,000-strong British and American force may be rushing final preparations for war a few miles away in the Kuwaiti desert, but the prospect of a war against Iraq has been greeted by Kuwaitis with a mixture of mild interest and apathy.
In the words of one of the defence ministry officials tasked with preparing Kuwait for imminent war: "We are in the eye of the storm, and it is calm."
In downtown Kuwait city a more accurate description would be becalmed.
Among the fashion boutiques and police check-points in Kuwait city middle-aged housewives in burqas shop for the latest Italian labels, and along the sea front in view of the destroyers and aircraft carriers gathered in the Gulf, young Kuwaiti men drive every evening honking the horns of their sports cars.
A call centre set-up in Kuwait last week to answers queries from Kuwaitis worried about what to do in the event of a nuclear, chemical or biological attack by Iraqi forces was closed down within a few days due to a lack of genuine demand.
The centre, staffed by Filipino and Indonesian female expats, was inundated with "flirtatious" and "naughty" calls.
It might be possible to ascribe a certain pre-war over-exuberance to proceedings in the wealthy Gulf state except, as one Kuwaiti youth in his Porsche said of his midnight cruising, "we do this every evening".
"It has been very difficult to make people to feel like they are in danger," said Mr Sulieman al-Azmi, a real estate agent working in the small town of Ahmadi
"We have lived through war before when the Iraqis invaded us. Then it was a shock but now that we know war is coming it is hard to become worried about it."
After the Iraqi invasion, Mr al-Azmi was one of the thousands of Kuwaitis who jumped in their cars and drove south to Saudi Arabia, where many have family. "If there is a problem I can jump in my car and drive to the Saudi border in one hour," he said.
At a tea house, traditional forum for late night political discussion, many of the men have sworn to leave under no circumstances. "Why should we go? We could not be any safer. We're surrounded by American troops and missile defences. And if a chemical bomb lands on my house, then I shall not be able to leave anyway, in sha'allah," Mr Mohammed Ghanim, a former army officer, said to an appreciative clinking of tea glasses at the display of Kuwaiti sang friod.
"We're more worried about what happens when the Americans go," said Mr Ahmed al-Bargess.
The question of regional instability in the wake of a war against Iraq is one that briefly excited debate in the tea house. But in the country which one tea-drinker affectionately referred to as "the 53rd state" (of the US) there is confidence their 12-year relationship with America will continue.
"American has made us strong and we need Americans to stay in Kuwait so that we can be continue to be an example to Iraq of what it might become," he said.
Only down by the harbour a short distance from the cafés and shopping malls, where poorer Kuwaitis gather along with Iranian and Egyptian sailors who fish and trade in the Gulf, is there a real sense of fear at what war may bring.
The talk on the quays of Iranian sailors being stranded in Kuwait for the duration of the war, and of Iraqi fishermen with who they trade in the demilitarised zone preparing their families to leave from towns in southern Iraq to other Gulf states indefinitely. "This is not a time for talking about what will happen after a war but during one," said one Iranian sailor, "and we are very frightened about that."