Q+A: Thailand and Cambodia face off again - for what?

By Ed Cropley

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Fighting talk from Cambodia and Thailand over the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple on a disputed stretch of border has raised fears of a serious military confrontation.

The following Q+A aims to clarify some of the issues behind the dispute:

1) If war broke out, would Thailand easily defeat Cambodia?

Yes and no.

The 300,000-strong Thai military has firepower that impoverished Cambodia can only dream of, including U.S.-made F-16 fighters and Blackhawk helicopters.

Cambodia has a few MiG-21s that have never been known to get off the ground and a handful of aging Soviet transport choppers.

If it came to "all-out" war, there could be only one winner. The problem for Thailand is that it will never come to that.

At worst, it could escalate into a series of jungle guerrilla battles similar to Thailand's 1987-88 border war with Laos in which the much larger Thai forces ended up with a bloody nose.

Like the Lao, Cambodian troops are ill-equipped and poorly paid but many are ex-Khmer Rouge soldiers who have only known peace in the last 10 years. They are tough and utterly ruthless.

In addition, the entire border is seeded with millions of landmines, the legacy of decades of civil war, and any Thai advance would incur heavy casualties.

2) Apart from national pride, is there any reason to go to war over this scrubland?

Not really, but national pride counts for a great deal in this part of the world, and temples including Preah Vihear -- or Khao Phra Viharn, as the Thais call it -- are inextricably entwined in the national psyches of both countries.

The stunning Hindu ruins were awarded to Cambodia in 1962 by the International Court of Justice, a ruling that sparked uproar in Thailand, where the military government had asked every citizen to donate 1 baht to pay for its legal costs.

A Cambodian mob torched the Thai embassy in 2003 after misreported comments from a Thai actress that the 800-year-old Angkor Wat temples deep inside Cambodia actually belonged to Thailand.

Preah Vihear ranks second only to Angkor in Cambodian hearts.