Specter of new conflict haunts World War I observances

Red poppy flowers were dropped onto soldiers, politicians and onlookers from across the world gathered in western Belgium on Tuesday to commemorate the end of World War I.

- BY SAM MCNEIL

They laid wreaths at a newly renovated memorial for the fallen in Ypres, the Belgian town that earned the grim honor of being synonymous with the brutality of conflict.

Tuesday is known as Armistice Day — or Veterans Day in the United States and Remembrance Day in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa — marking the end of World War I.

Soldiers from New Zealand to Canada paraded through town toward the Menin Gate, a massive stone memorial inscribed with the names of tens of thousands of soldiers who were killed but left without graves.

Bagpipes and bugles rang out alongside an electric guitar that played “Masters of War” by Bob Dylan in Flemish and English. A choir sang John Lennon's “Imagine.”