"Well. OK," says Adrianne Foglia at the Colombian embassy. Foglia is a realist. She predicts that support for the war from Latin and Central America will be largely symbolic. "Number one, I don't think they need to fly over Colombia in order to get to Iraq. Looking at that list, I think the countries involved might offer primarily intelligence information, if there is any, or moral support. Other than that, I'm not sure that there's much we can do from the other side of the world."

Andres Gomez, at the Nicaraguan embassy, counters smartly, "Physical support or moral support?" Either. "Well." He laughs. "To my knowledge we're not sending any troops. But we do support fully the US, the UK and Spain."