Seven Taliban In One Day

Here is a guy who really loves his job. His job is killing Taliban fighters.

SNIPER Steve Lewis is the dead-shot of the British Army - killing SEVEN Taliban fighters in one day.

And the 29-year-old ex-binman who blew away 13 of the enemy in his first tour of duty pulls no punches about his job. Steve, of the 16 Air Assault Brigade, says: "We're glad when we get a kill - it's what we do".

The British have been suffering some serious casualties lately in Afghanistan and there is no doubt they have a lot of skin in the game. At least their soldiers, like ours, know what the stakes are, and aren't tied up in all of the political touchy feely mindset which has afflicted so many in the West who have no stomach for this fight.

There is also an American connection to this dedicated sniper.

Frank - who holds a British passport but grew up in America's Mid-West - adds: "Even so, if you talked about it much people would want to avoid you. They'd think you were weird."

Nursing a battle wound near his eye, Frank, 22, shares Steve's grim determination.

He wanted to be a sniper after getting a pellet gun at 12. "I always wanted to be the best, the pinnacle," he says. Frank dreams of being SAS one day. For now he's the 'number two' in the sniping pair, responsible for ranging the targets, working out wind speed, humidity, temperature - anything that can affect the trajectory of a bullet.

Being a true sniper is an art form. It takes a lot of patience, skill, and knowledge to do the job. Merely being a good shot is not good enough. You have to know everything about the weapon you use--the ammunition, weather, light, wind and a hundred other things. Your brain must be a super-computer to calculate all of the variables and to be ready at the precise moment that the target presents itself to execute flawlessly. The cost of failure often results in your death or the death of other soldiers.

Never underestimate the impact a sniper can have on the enemy. I wish these men continued good hunting and success.

BTW, a binman is a garbage collector.