April 23, 2007: Westerners who live in the Persian Gulf (working for oil companies, governments and so on) have their own intelligence system, used to predict what the next disaster will be, and whether it's time to get out of the region. For example, all the talk about the U.S. invading Iran has generally been ignored by the Western expats in the Gulf. The reason was simple; the Kuwaitis weren't doing anything. For centuries, Kuwait was the canary in the coal mine as far as Iran went. Kuwait has a large Shia minority, and many families that have Iranian branches. These days, Kuwait is also a major American ally in the region. So all the talk of America attacking Iran was dismissed as long on the Kuwaitis were going about their business as usual.

Now the Kuwaitis are doing something, and that is making the expats, and many of the natives, nervous. Kuwait has publicly announced government ministries are preparing for the possibility of war between Iran and the United States. The Kuwaitis are not implying that such a war is a sure thing, but they are acknowledging that such a conflict is now a real possibility.

Currently, about 15,000 American troops are stationed in Kuwait, which serves as a staging area and logistics base for U.S. operations in Iraq. The war has been a bonanza for the Kuwaiti economy, as many goods and services for U.S. troops have been bought in Kuwait.