Germany's army, the Bundeswehr, has been participating in the ISAF stabilization force in Afghanistan since December 2001 at a total cost to the country's taxpayers of near €3 billion. The Finance Ministry in Berlin released those figures last week at the request of Gesine Lötzsch, a Left Party member of the federal parliament.

According to the ministry, the government had spent €2.4 billion ($3.27 billion) through the end of 2007 for "deployment related additional expenditures" to the federal budget. The budget calls for a further €388 million in spending for the ISAF mission in 2008. Actual expenditures for this year, however, will be considerably higher because the budget only includes expenditures through the end of the current deployment mandate, which ends on Oct. 13.

This week, however, Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, is expected to extend the mandate by an additional 14 months at an estimated cost of a further €688 million. So far, Germany's military spending in Afghanistan has been almost four times greater than what it has contributed in civilian development aid. Since 2001, Berlin has provided €830 million in such aid. By comparison, through the end of 2007, the German government spent about €1.1 billion on the purchase and maintenance of military equipment used in the ISAF mission.