Rubio to argue national loyalty over ‘global community’
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to deliver a speech in Athens calling for Western nations to return to their civilizational roots and restore the values that drove the rise of Europe and North America to global dominance for centuries, according to excerpts distributed by the State Department and reported by the Associated Press.
In Athens to discuss deepening economic, energy and security cooperation with Greece, Rubio will deliver a speech later today at a site overlooking the ruins of the Acropolis. The Acropolis is a widely recognizable symbol of the city’s ancient civilization associated with the creation of popular participatory government and the social contract. Rubio intends to remind listeners of qualities he says were born in Greece and later defined the West, including curiosity, courage, ambition and a restless spirit of exploration and discovery of the unknown.
“It has become fashionable today to believe that enlightened foreign policy means prioritizing the ‘global community’ over one’s own people,” Rubio plans to say, according to excerpts distributed by the State Department. “Here, too, we have much more to learn from the men of Ancient Greece. They knew that there was nothing selfish or wrong about loyalty to your nation, nor in fighting to defend its interests above all else.”
“Today, we find ourselves at a crossroads,” he will say, according to the excerpts. “The next decade will write the story of the next century. 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. We will either choose to act now or lose the choice to act at all.”