More than 100 years after WW1, the threat of conflict haunts Europe and – nationally
Red poppies were thrown to soldiers, politicians and spectators from around the world gathered in western Belgium on Tuesday to commemorate the end of World War I.
They rested their wrists at a recently renovated memorial to those who fell in ypren, a Belgian city that bears the grim reputation of being synonymous with the brutality of the conflict.
Tuesday is known as Armistice Day – or Veterans Day in the United States and Beremore Day in Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa – to mark the end of WWI.
Soldiers came from New Zealand to Canada leading the village towards the Menidi Gate, a large stone memorial inscribed with the names of tens of thousands of soldiers who were killed but left without graves.
Bagpipes and bugles appeared alongside an electric guitar that played “Warlords” by Bob Dylan in Flemish and English. The Choir sang John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
In Britain, many people observed two minutes of silence at 11 am, marking the time when the war ended in 1918, at the 11th hour of the 11th year of the 11th month.
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In France, President Emmanuel Macron attended the traditional ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe and lit the eternal flame at the Memorial carved on the Memorial. “
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albenese said the nation’s moment of peace ‘was a sickening sense of the hush that swept through Europe when the guns stopped in 1918. “
From 1914-1918, the forces of France, the British Empire, Russia and the US fought against the unity of this German alliance including the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The war killed nearly ten million soldiers, sometimes tens of thousands in a single day.
Hundreds of thousands died in ypres alone.
The bloody fields of the Flanders region saw the development of modern methods of execution. The horses are dressed next to the tanks. Poison gas is introduced. Aerial observation provided precision to the artillery placed by the destaival forces.
After the “war to end all wars” and WWII, today’s geopolimical system was created with the aim of avoiding future conflicts, giving birth to the United Nations and the European Union.
Decades later, across the once-built Europe, countries are back, plowing money into the defense industry in response to Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine.
The 27-National EU has been worried about a series of airspace violations, some of them close to its borders with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Western authorities have accused Russia and its proxies of staging a number of attacks.
Outside of Europe, wars in places as far away as Gaza and Sudan have had a far-reaching impact beyond their borders. Tensions in Asia have led Japan and others to increase military spending. And around the world, rising political movements can create a democratic order, with Authoritarianism on the rise.
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