December 7

Well, we all know what December 7 means to an American.  But we'll keep going and see if we can find some other interesting things, shall we?

It's a big day in 1776. Sort of.  A very young Frenchman named Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, having made his way to America against the orders of the King of France, also made his way to Philadelphia, and on this date was commissioned as Major General in the Continental Army.  He was one of the best and most important of the foreign volunteers who entered American Service.  There were many others- an American officer wrote that when seeing a foreigner in the Army camp, it was a good idea to address him as "Colonel" even before finding out who he was.  Most of that was the doing of Congress of course.  They could never resist anyone with a grand claim of brilliance and love for America.

And of course today is the day that the US goes to War.  However it's 1917, and Congress declares war on Austria-Hungary.  Which, as far as I know, doesn't really accomplish much- I don't know that the two engage in a lot of fighting during the next 11 months.

And of course, in 1941 we all know what happened. There's still a school of thought that claims Roosevelt knew it was coming.  I've read some of their stuff, and it does sound kind of intriguing.  However, it's hard to know if a specific claim is persuasive or not, since the conspiracy theorists never present an alternative explanation; and the non-conspirators never really acknowledge the questions.  So let's leave it aside, remember the dead, and be thankful that the carriers were out of harbor and the Japanese didn't launch another strike against the oil tanks there, which would probably have been a huge addition to the damage.  Some argue that hitting the oil storage and destroying it might have cost the US at least a few more months before they could even start to counterattack.  And who knows what might have happened in the meantime, though the results probably would have been the same.

In 1988, terrorist hero Yasser Arafat, nephew and successor of one of Hitler's most loyal allies, recognizes the right of Israel to exist.  To the Western media, that is.  Most likely, given his usual pattern, he immediately told the Arab press that he didn't do it, since that was his usual pattern.  There's a term for this in Muslim doctrine- Taqqiya, which means "religious lying".  It's lying about your beliefs in order to buy time until you can attack them again.  An important thing to remember.

And that's the way it was on December 7.