OT-Interesting DOJ opinion on the 2nd Amendment -2004

From Amazon.com:

"Revolt of Gunner Asch " "What Became of Gunner Asch" "Forward Gunner Asch" "The return of Gunner Asch"

by Hans Hellmut Kirst

"The Revolt of Gunner Asch takes place a short time prior to World War II and puts its focus on the life of an everyday German soldier dealing with the intricacies and oxymorons of life in the Wehrmacht. Young Gunner Asch maintains his balance as he sees the changing political climate of his country, and the frustrations brought about by the Army life by use of quick wit, and a truly sardonic sense of humor. When there is a problem in the battery with a young recruit being first crushed and then molded into an Army automaton by the system, Gunner Asch declares his revolt against the system itself. His main weapon will be to follow the regulations precisely as they are written, and not as they are applied. The result is total chaos for the entire battery. Asch, who was considered a good if not ideal soldier quickly becomes the pain in everyone's backside and makes life very interesting for all involved."

Gunner Asch plainly evolved (independently) from "The Good Soldier Schweik", whose tales my father used to relate to me. He (my father) found it particularly amusing that the book was proscribed, with harsh penalties for possession, in its native (and allied) land.

On Schweik:

" The title character of The Good Soldier Svejk is classified as 'feeble-minded', but he is drafted into the service of Austria with the advent of WW I. Svejk (written also Schweik and ?vejk) is honest, naive, incompetent, and perhaps more shrewd than he reveals - the reader remains unsure whether he is a good-natured simpleton or counterfeiting. Many readers vote that he is a wise fool. In the fourth chapter Svejk is thrown out of a nuthouse, where the doctors suspect that he is pretending to be mad. Svejk doesn't complain about his rough treatment and later says that real freedom, of which Socialists have never dreamed, is in the nuthouse - there you can be what ever you want, God, the Pope, the King of England, or St. Václav, although the latter was constantly in a straitjacket.

As illustrated in Josef Lada's series of cartoons, Svejk is a plump, badly shaved, middle-aged, ordinary-looking man. He is arrested for making indiscreet remarks about the assassination of the Archeduke Ferdinand, interrogated by civil and military authorities, enforced to enlist, posted as an orderly to various officers, finally to Lucas.

His strategy to undermine the pompous military bureaucracy is simple: he fulfils the orders to the point which causes trouble, especially for Lieutenant Lucas.

The novel was banned from the Czechoslovak army in 1925, the Polish translation was confiscated in 1928, the Bulgarian translation was suppressed in 1935, and the German translation burned on Nazi bonfires in 1933."

Worth a read. I can understand why someone would want to model themselves on either Asch or Schweik.

I wonder: Is there an equivalent "hero" from, say, Korea, 'Nam or the middle east? Any authors out there looking for a theme?

-- Jeff R.

Chuckle..... spoken like the truly clueless.

Other books written by Herr Kirst

Night of the Generals The Officer Factory Nights of the long knives Soldiers' revolt Brothers in arms The Adventures of Private Faust The wolves PARTY GAMES The affairs of the generals

He wrote over 40 books, mostly political thrillers and military fiction. Much of which was very anti-war, or at the least, very anti-establishment.

One may have seen the several movies based on his books.

Gunner

"To be civilized is to restrain the ability to commit mayhem. To be incapable of committing mayhem is not the mark of the civilized, merely the domesticated." - Trefor Thomas