h/t Gates of Vienna
Lance Corporal Bale Baleiwai has spent his whole adult life in the British Army. He has a glowing service record, a row of medals and a starring role in Army recruitment advertising.
His reward is a deportation notice. After 13 years fighting for Britain, it has given him three weeks to leave the country. "When I had the uniform on, I was a British soldier," he says. "Now I have taken it off, I'm just a problem they want to get rid of."
L/Cpl Baleiwai was British enough for two tours in Iraq, dodging the bullets on escort duty. He was British enough to patrol Belfast and Bosnia. In Afghanistan, he was British enough to spend seven months as a gunner in a brigade recce force, under daily Taliban fire that killed three of his comrades. |