The Bar Tangled Spanner

Question:  What would you get, if you threw a spanner (British word for "wrench") into the works, and the spanner became entangled in the work's bars?

Answer:

Oh-oh say can you see? 

And what if the "bars" were the bars of the American Flag?  

And isn't that sort of happening right now?  If we let it, I mean?