On security in 2010:<p>1) Afghanistan can still be dangerous.  The risk for a trigger puller/door kicker is very high, but for an IT contractor it's about the same as riding a motorcycle 50-100mi/day in Seattle.<p>2) Iraq is actually safer (on base, for IT contractors) than living in a lot of big but not especially nice cities.  The biggest risk is honestly chronic health conditions (like a heart attack) or people having emotional/relationship/etc. issues and self-inflicted injury.<p>3) Kuwait is INSANE.  Specifically, driving off-base is insane.  I drive about 2-3h/day between US bases, and see one obviously-fatal motor vehicle accident on the highways every day.  The only time in my life I've ever done CPR and treated arterial bleeding (I'm an IT guy, not a doctor!) was responding to a Kuwaiti on Kuwaiti vehicle accident a couple years ago.  I'd say the risk is about the same as riding 50-100 miles/day on a motorcycle, drunk, in a not-especially-motorcycle-friendly city.<p>4) Qatar is like Kuwait only safer.<p>5) Bahrain is safer than Kuwait and fun, except on Thursday/Friday when lots of drunk Saudi weekend guys show up, turning it into Kuwait-level danger.<p>There are lots of reasons to do or not do this, but safety is basically not an issue (except if you're driving between bases in Kuwait, which people don't really do)