Keep the boors out

Re: "Tension with Iran puts heat on US citizens", Letters, February 6.

I was alarmed to read Somsak Pola's letter warning that "American tourists and expats are like walking lightning rods" for Iranian terrorists. He wants Thai people to keep away from Americans, and wants the Thai government to stop issuing them tourist visas.

I don't mind if American tourists stop coming to Thailand. I have found many of my visiting compatriots to be loud, boorish and obnoxious, and will not at all miss their company. (Some of the British yobbos are even worse.) Let's have more of those nice polite Japanese and Scandinavians.

I do not at all like the idea as serving as a lightning rod for Iranian terrorists. As elderly resident American expats, my husband and I feel extremely vulnerable and are taking evasive action. I plan to purchase an abayah in one of the Arab shops around Soi Nana, and my husband has taken up smoking the sheesha. Formerly known as Horace, he has assumed the new Iranian-friendly name "Hezbollah" and has already started growing a beard. At present it is in the scraggly stage. I hope that when it grows out he will no longer look like Pete the Tramp.

We justify these precautions on religious grounds, as we have always been Orthodox Cowards.

Salaam aleikum.

Qaeda Beasley

Bangkok