It costs more to clean this room per year than Belgium will spend with her 35 trainers in Afghanistan.Hat tip: al-bob
It is a wonderful thing to have friends and allies when you need them. Certainly it is a tribute to past US sacrifices in Belgium, that Belgium steps in as a clutch player and offers 35 of her finest to supplement thousands of US fighting forces in Afghanistan. No, I am not talking about 35 divisions, not 35 brigades or platoons. No I said 35 trainers. Thirty five?
There are around 360 Belgian soldiers already deployed in Afghanistan, most of them maintaining security at Kabul Airport.
The total cost of the extension of the Belgian contribution to the military effort to Afghanistan was 30 million euros ($44.60 million) in 2008 from 24.5 million euros in 2007.
Wind back the clock.
In December 1944, German forces launched the Ardennes Offensive in southeastern Belgium. That was the Battle of the Bulge.
The liberation of Belgium began in September 1944 and at the end the US paid for the venture with 75,000 casualties.
It took the Belgian army less than 18 days to surrender to the Nazis in 1940.
