Tale of Two War Zones

Zeitgeist

Iraq: A formerly middle-class country, "proud," destroyed: "These people went from having normal lives, with houses and cars and private school, to having nothing."

Afghanistan: "Nairobi on crack": a much poorer, less-developed, and often-occupied country. "There's a sense of hopelessness, of ‘how are you ever going to get out of that cycle?'"

Weather

Iraq: 48° to 94°F (average January and July temperatures in Baghdad); "10 o'clock at night and still baking," with frequent sandstorms

Afghanistan: 30°F to 74°F (average January and July temperatures in Kabul); "the climate of Santa Fe," with a "lovely fall, a muddy winter and spring, and a hot dry summer"

Big man

Iraq: Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki: the "legitimacy of a mass political base," for now, and broad support from Shia and Kurds, although some fear him becoming a strongman. Maliki on Maliki: "I am a friend of the United States, but I am not America's man in Iraq."

Afghanistan: President Hamid Karzai: a "puppet," with little hope of coalescing the fractured political scene; U.S. considers him the least-worst option. Karzai on Karzai: "If I am called a puppet because we are grateful to the U.S., then let that be my nickname."

Price of a kabob

Iraq: $2-6

Afghanistan: 50 cents

Price of a bottle of whiskey

Iraq: 10,000 dinars ($8.60)

Afghanistan: 5,000 afghanis ($110)

Expat hangout

Iraq: U.S. Embassy FDAC (dining facility)

Afghanistan: The bar at the swank Gandamack Lodge and dance clubs such as Bayou Blues and Crazy Eight

Approximate number of ATMs in capital

Iraq: 20

Afghanistan: 5

Price of a crosstown car trip

Iraq: Up to $1,000 for an armored convoy

Afghanistan: $5-$15 for a taxi

Lost in the war

Iraq: 4,300 coalition troops and at least 20,000 Iraqi soldiers and police; at least 90,000 civilians due to fighting and 50,000 due to indirect causes; 163 journalists; 15,000 artifacts from looted museums, including the world's premier collection of more than 4,000 ancient cylindrical seals

Afghanistan: 1,160 coalition troops and at least 10,000 Afghan soldiers and police; at least 11,000 civilians due to fighting and 20,000 from indirect causes; six journalists; artifacts from hundreds of archeological digs (culture minister describes Afghanistan as "one big museum" slowly pillaged)

Politicking

Iraq: 14,400 candidates for 440 provincial council seats (January 2009). A strong partisan political culture with numerous political parties: "Tribal structures are basically artificial creations of the Baathist state." Favored campaign slogans: "We are poor like you and we work for you"; "With us your life would be worth something."

Afghanistan: 2,707 candidates running for 249 parliamentary seats (April 2005). Political culture tends toward "tremendous atomization." Tribes—"a grass-roots political structure"—are far more influential than parties. Favored campaign slogans: none, because the population is largely illiterate. Posters use symbols such as horses and lamps.

Day trip

Iraq: Baghdad to Kirkuk: C-130 airplanes and Black Hawk helicopters fly daily. "To get from A to B in Iraq, you didn't have much trouble." No-go zones: Ramadi, Adhamiyah, Dora

Afghanistan: Kabul to Jalalabad: Treacherous roads or long waits for airplanes. No-go zones: Helmand and Kandahar provinces

Price of a Kalashnikov

Iraq: $600

The bang in the middle of the night

Iraq: Improvised explosive devices (IEDs), homemade or imported from Iran. "They never waste an IED on a couple of people. They want to blow up a convoy."

Afghanistan: Leftover land mines from the Soviet conflict. "You see a lot of Afghans with missing legs. You could sit there at night, and you'd hear a bang, and then a dog yelling, because the dog had chased a mouse or rabbit into a field and gotten itself half blown up."