Standing with a view of Athen’s Parthenon behind him, Secretary of State Marco Rubio remarked on what western civilization inherited from the ancient Greeks. Included is a confidence in a rational order to the cosmos, governed by certain fundamental laws, laws that men can observe and the mind can come to understand.
“This was the foundation of the Western mind,” said Secretary Rubio, “our math, our science, our medicine. Our philosophy, ethics, and religion. It paved the way for the gospel of Jesus Christ to find fertile soil in Europe and flourish into the empire of Christendom.”
“For the Greeks of antiquity, the pursuit of excellence was the very principle of man’s existence,” observed Secretary Rubio.
Today, too much of the West has forgotten this quality. Over time, those in the West came to feel ashamed of the very things that made them exceptional.
As a result, said Secretary Rubio, “We tore down our monuments; we condemned our own history. And in too many places, we taught our children to be ashamed of the countries they would inherit. In the process, we opened our borders and outsourced our industry, and allowed our militaries to wither and to decay.”
But others were all too happy to fill the vacuum.
“And now, we find ourselves at a crossroads,” warned Secretary Rubio. “The course we take will determine whether the West maintains its place at the head of the world or resigns itself to a future of atrophy, servitude, and decline.”
Under President Trump, the United States has made its choice. “We choose the unapologetic pursuit of national power: to take back control of our critical supply chains, to reindustrialize our economy, to rebuild our defense, to fight for dominance of the technologies and industries of the future,” declared Secretary Rubio.
“We believe that Europe can awaken from its long slumber and rekindle the fire that was lit here millennia ago.”
Across the continent, there are the beginnings of a generational shift: skyrocketing defense spending, a flurry of new partnerships and programs, expanded manufacturing and production, following the defense commitments made last year in The Hague.
“Greece has been at the center of this shift,” observed Secretary Rubio. “And it’s our sincerest hope that all of Europe will follow your example.”
“The greatest Americans of every generation have carried the unmistakable features of their forefathers – born in Athens, formed by Rome, baptized in Christendom, hardened in the furnace of medieval Europe, endowed with the English genius for liberty, and then carried across the Atlantic to be reborn on the shores of a new world.”
“Together, we must now rediscover that spirit,” urged Secretary Rubio.
“We must rebuild our institutions and our alliances to face these threats together – understanding that the purpose of these things is not to abolish the sovereignty of the nations that constitute them; it is to defend them.”