Standing beneath the Parthenon in Athens on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered one of the most striking...

Standing beneath the Parthenon in Athens on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered one of the most striking speeches of his tenure, invoking 25 centuries of Western civilization to argue that America owes an unpayable debt to the ancient Greeks. "The Parthenon has stood," Rubio said, speaking directly from the Acropolis. "Empires have risen and fallen beneath its shadow, and the progeny of the men who built it have carried their civilization with them to the ends of the Earth." He framed the speech partly as a personal testimony, noting that he stands before the monument as the great-grandson of Spanish settlers who arrived in the New World, and as the secretary of state of a republic founded half a world away from Athens. The address came on the third anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks and doubled as a sweeping articulation of the Trump administration's foreign policy doctrine. Rubio argued that Western civilization was "born in Athens, formed by Rome, baptized in Christendom, hardened in the furnace of medieval Europe," before crossing the Atlantic to take root in America. He warned that the next decade 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." Rubio called on European nations to increase defense spending and rebuild manufacturing, praising Greece specifically as a model NATO ally, pointing to Athens' Achilles Shield defense initiative and a recent deal with Israel for Spyder, David's Sling, and Barak MX air defense systems. Earlier in the day, Rubio met with Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis in Athens. #Greece #MarcoRubio #WesternCivilization