How do Chiang Mai locals feel about the battles between Cambodia and Thailand?

I'll start out with a summary of what the opinion is of people here in Chiang Mai, Thailand as far as the escalating violence between Thailand and Cambodia that is going on at a dozen sites on the Thai Cambodia border right now: Indifference.

That might sound cold and it is only the opinion of a few people that are Thai that I hang out with on a regular basis, but that is exactly what they said. It is kind of a "it's got nothing to do with me!" sort of attitude.

As far as I know, tensions have been high between Thailand and Cambodia at the border for a while now and some of this tension comes from some disputed land that a temple is on. For years, apparently, both sides have claimed that it is theirs, even though I don't really think it is valuable and it doesn't make much sense to be squabbling over it IMO.

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You'll have to excuse my ignorance as far as this is concerned because honestly, it never really made so much as a blip on the radar even though I currently live in one of the countries that is involved in this long-standing feud over a Hindu temple on the border. From what I have heard both sides claim the temple is "theirs" and accuse the other of altering maps to support their claim.

There are other aspects of what appears to simply be stubbornness going on as well such as one side deciding to suspend visas with no reason given and then one side or the other just deciding to close the border. I'm sure there is a real reason, but the government here in Thailand doesn't exactly let the population know what is really going on and simply points the fingers at the other side and says what they are doing is bad. This isn't Thailand or Cambodian specific, such propaganda is likely done by every government in the world.

Even the commanders right now are giving the public very little information and the way that they word it always makes it sound like the other guy is the aggressor.

..."Cambodia had continued to use artillery and rocket fire, prompting Thai troops to respond with “supporting fire in line with the tactical situation.”

This is the word of a Thai admiral and you can see how the way it is worded makes it sound like Thailand did nothing wrong and are simply responding.. What is actually happening? Nobody really knows.

I do know that the people of Chiang Mai that don't have family over in that direction really don't pay much attention to it and don't really have an opinion about it. The way society works here is that if you ever speak out against the government too loudly, you can find yourself in a lot of trouble so I think that most people just mind their own business... which might be wise.

We are quite some distance from Cambodia over here in Chiang Mai so I think that the people are not worried because of this massive buffer zone between here and there.

We do have rather large military bases in Chiang Mai and when I ride around I haven't noticed any sort of increased activity.

I do hope that both sides can reach some sort of agreement though because from what I have read 12 people have lost their lives and 45 more have been wounded. Also, some 100 thousand people have had to be evacuated from their homes and cities because, according to the Thai government, Cambodia is targeting civilian areas. Is this actually true? Well, who knows.

One good thing is that the real influential powers that be such as the United States and China are both calling for an end to this immediately, and I hope that can end up being the case.

At the moment though, it is business as usual in Chiang Mai and several of my Thai friends when I asked them how they felt about the Thailand/Cambodian conflict, their response was "what conflict?" Well hopefully everyone can calm down before it becomes a much bigger deal. The military has told the public they have dispatched a single F-16 fighter jet so in my mind this probably means they have sent out more than that.