From The Bastille To 9/11

The French Revolution, beginning in 1789, is considered as the "Big Bang" of the modern political era. It set the pace for the modern world in that the king and queen were overthrown and executed, to make way for a republic. It is also significant that Napoleon arose out of the chaos following the revolution, and became the prototype of the modern dictator.

The signature event of the French Revolution was the Storming of the Bastille. This was an armory in Paris and the revolutionaries captured the guns and ammunition that was stored there. This was a very important event in the success of the revolution.

In my view there has been two major, and numerous minor, reenactments of the French Revolution. What I mean by major is a changing of the basic direction of the revolution. The first major reenactment was the October Revolution, of 1917. This changed the basic direction of the revolution from primarily political to economic, specifically about Communism. The signature event of the October Revolution was the Storming of the Winter Palace. The second major reenactment was the Iranian Revolution of 1979. The direction of the revolution had been away from religion, this made it primarily about religion. The signature event of the Iranian Revolution was the Storming of the U.S. Embassy.

I have long considered the Republican side of the U.S., despite the name, as being the continuation of the French Bourbon Dynasty, that was overthrown in the revolution. It was the doomed king and queen who were America's first allies and helped it to gain independence. This is described in detail in the compound posting "America And The Modern World Explained By Way Of Paris", December 2015, so I won't go over it again here.

The most visible link between America and the Bourbon monarchy is Lafayette. This was the young French nobleman, with a military background, who journeyed to America to participate in it's Revolutionary War. He would play a great role in the war, as well as persuading France to join America's war effort. 

Lafayette would later be caught up in the French Revolution. His National Guard troops would open fire on a crowd of demonstrators where the Eiffel Tower is now located. He apparently tried to chart a moderate course through the revolution but was arrested by more radical elements. The revolution ultimately ended in the rule of Napoleon, who got Lafayette released but he declined to serve Napoleon. He was involved in writing the central French revolutionary document "The Rights Of Man And Of The Citizen", and later supported the post-Napoleon constitutional monarchy.

The name of Lafayette is all over the eastern part of the U.S., the names of towns and streets and schools. In 1825 an elderly Lafayette, on a return visit to America, made a speech in Buffalo's Lafayette Square. Image from Google Street View. The monument is a commemoration of America's Civil War, which happened after Lafayette's time.

DEFENDING THE BASTILLE 

So much of what America does, particularly the Republican side, is actually "defending the Bastille". The loss of the Bastille was the key event in the success of the destructive and chaotic revolution that overthrew and guillotined America's close friends. 

Have you ever wondered why America, usually a very progressive country, was the last major country to accept the Metric System? The underlying reason is because the French revolutionaries invented the Metric System. 

Why are America's Republicans so adamant about the right to own guns, in stark contrast to the other western countries? It is because of the historical memory of the guns being seized in the Storming of the Bastille, which resulted in America's close friends being overthrown and guillotined.

AMERICA'S WAR ICONS 

Has anyone ever noticed a pattern in the wars that America has been involved in? An American victory seems to depend, as much as anything, on the presence of an "icon" that is suitable as a rallying point. I find this really amazing.

This icon pattern began with it's first war, The Revolutionary War, with the shootings of colonists at Lexington and Concord. They rallied around these shootings as they went to war for independence.

In the War of 1812, however, such an icon to rally around was missing and the war ended in a stalemate.

America's Revolutionary War took place before the French Revolution. What is interesting is that, after that point, the war icon was always either a building or a ship, in contrast with the shootings at Lexington and Concord. What is actually happening is that the building or ship is taking the place of the Bastille. This is America's subconscious way of rallying around the Bastille, since the Republican side of America is a continuation of the Bourbon Dynasty.

In the Mexican War, the rallying icon was "Remember the Alamo". This referred to the earlier massacre of Texans, and the heroism of the defenders, at that missionary complex by the Mexican Army in Texas' war of independence against Mexico. The Alamo was replacing the Bastille.

However Texans were at war to be an independent republic and the siege of the Alamo wasn't actually about America. The famous names of those who died in the Alamo were Americans who had settled in Mexican Texas but it would be years before it was actually part of America.

In America's Civil War, it was Fort Sumter that served as the Bastille. This was a fort on an island just off Charleston, South Carolina. When South Carolina seceded from the Union, the garrison of Fort Sumter refused to lower it's Union flag and Confederate troops on the shore opened fire upon it, thus initiating the war. This was a reenactment of the Storming of the Bastille.

In the Spanish-American War, it was "Remember the Maine". This was an American warship that had been sent into the harbor of Havava to protect American interests during Cuba's uprising against Spanish rule. The ship mysteriously exploded, and the explosion was blamed on Spanish forces. Whether this was true or not, and there is considerable doubt to this day, it served as the Bastille as America went to war.

In the First World War, it looked as if America would not get involved. But a Bastille came along to change that. There were many Americans among the dead when the British passenger liner, the Lusitania, was torpedoed by a German submarine.

All we need to say about America's entry into the Second World War is "Remember Pearl Harbor". Again Americans had a Bastille to defend.

The Korean War, like the War of 1812, lacked such an icon and so, like the War of 1812, did not end in a clear American victory. There was the ship, USS Pueblo, that was captured by the North Koreans, but that did not happen until much later.

The Vietnam War is another one that lacked such an icon as a rallying point and so did not end in a clear victory. There was an attack on the destroyer, USS Maddox, in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964. But damage to the ship was minimal, and it did not merit Bastille status.

For the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, of course, the icon is "Remember 9/11". This attack on the U.S. played into the historical pattern of the Bastille with perfection. Nothing that Al Qaeda could have done would have provided the United States with a better version of the Bastille. This was a superior icon even to Pearl Harbor, since it targeted civilians.

The war in Afghanistan was ultimately inconclusive but the Taliban was not directly involved in 9/11, even though they had allowed Al Qaeda to set up camp there and refused to turn them over afterward.

I find that further discussion is merited in the case of Desert Storm in 1991. It was a clear victory, but "Remember Kuwait" was hardly the rallying point. It is true that this was an international effort, and less than half of the participating combat troops were American.

But there is a now-forgotten incident that I have long believed served the U.S. Government as the effective Bastille for Desert Storm. In 1987, there were warships patrolling the Persian Gulf to ensure that oil tankers could get through, as the Iran-Iraq War was still being fought.

An Iraqi pilot seems to have mistook the USS Stark for an Iranian vessel. The pilot fired an anti-ship missile into the Stark, killing 37 U.S. sailors. Even though the incident appears to have been a mistake, I believed that this served the U.S. Government three years later as a Bastille war icon in expelling Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait.

Isn't it interesting that the War of 1812, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Afghanistan War are America's four wars that did not end in clear victory? Those are also the four that did not have a significant war icon, a modern Bastille, as did the ones that did end in victory.

THE BALTIC TRIANGLE 

Here is an example of history repeating itself, involving ships, that I have never seen pointed out.

The October Revolution, of 1917, was the beginning of world Communism. The revolution actually began on board a navy ship that was docked at St. Petersburg, the Aurora. A gun of the ship then fired the blank shot that signalled the beginning of the revolution. Image from Google Street View.

The following year was the November Revolution, in Germany. It resulted in the overthrow of the Kaiser, just as the October Revolution had resulted in the overthrow of the Tsar. The October Revolution is so-called because Russia was still using the Julian Calendar. Both revolutions were actually in November by the Gregorian Calendar. The November Revolution also began with ships, with a mutiny by sailors at Kiel. We saw this revolution in the posting "The End Of The First World War", November 2018.

Communism ended in Eastern Europe in 1989. The end of Communism is considered to have begun with the formation of the Solidarity movement in Poland. This also involved ships. The movement began among workers in what was then called the Lenin Shipyard, in Gdansk. Image from Google Earth.

What is so interesting is that all three of these revolutions began with ships or shipyards on the Baltic Sea. This is the shallow sea between Scandinavia and continental Eastern Europe. 

In the following image, from Google Earth, the red dot in the upper right, to the northeast of Estonia, is the site of the beginning of the October Revolution. The yellow dot below Denmark, at left, is the site of the beginning of the November Revolution. The magenta dot on the coast of Poland, in the center, is the site of the beginning of the Solidarity movement.

THE REVOLUTIONARY SIDE OF THE BASTILLE 

While the reenactments of the French Revolution have been reenacting the Storming of the Bastille America, in it's periodic wars, have been reenacting defending the Bastille. But the Storming of the Bastille that so often has been reenacted has adopted modern technology, and moved into the new millennium.

Do you notice the great similarity between the Storming of the Bastille and the 9/11 Attack? It was just the adaptation of modern technology to the Eighteenth Century event that started the modern political era. The two events were major strikes against buildings representing the unwanted established order of things. Instead of seizing guns as weapons, as in the Bastille, the hijackers of 9/11 seized planes to use as weapons.

Just as there are periodic reenactments of the French Revolution, with some version of the Storming of the Bastille, so there have been reenactments of 9/11 against western countries. The reenactments of 9/11 were especially against those western countries that participated in the military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, which followed 9/11.

In 2002 Bali, in Indonesia suffered a bombing attack, apparently targeting Australians on vacation. In 2004, Spain had it's version of 9/11 with the bombing of commuter trains in Madrid. In 2005 it was London's turn, with bombings of the subway and a bus. Paris had a horrific reenactment of 9/11 in 2015. The Bataclan Theater, where the worst part of the attack took place, is within walking distance from the former site of the Bastille. A few months later, in early 2016, Belgium had it's version of 9/11 with bombings of the airport and a train.