Rubio: U.S. will defend, renew Western civilization, ready to ‘do this alone’ if Europe won’t
By Ben Wolfgang - The Washington Times - Sunday, February 15, 2026
Key European leaders fired back Sunday after Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s blistering speech over the weekend in which he directly tied the shared history and culture of Western nations to their collective security in the 21st century. Mr. Rubio told those European officials that the U.S. wants to renew Transatlantic alliances but seeks partners “proud of their heritage” and not “shackled by guilt and shame.”
Mr. Rubio was the highest-ranking American official to speak at this year’s Munich Security Conference in Germany. His address — which comes at a moment of war between Ukraine and Russia and increasingly tense U.S.-European dynamics over matters such as the Trump administration’s push to control Greenland — offered a big-picture, almost philosophical explanation for this administration’s attitude toward Europe.
“The fundamental question we must answer at the outset is: what exactly are we defending?” he said. “Because armies do not fight for abstractions. Armies fight for a people; armies fight for a nation. Armies fight for a way of life. And that is what we are defending: a great civilization that has every reason to be proud of its history, confident of its future, and aims to always be the master of its own economic and political destiny.”
Mr. Rubio touted the shared civilization and Christian heritage on both continents. He told European leaders to embrace their own national sovereignty and reject political arguments that seek to shame them into accepting unchecked illegal immigration and, in the process, the slow erosion of their own national identities.
Some European officials objected to the characterization that they’re presiding over a decline of Western civilization. In remarks to the Munich forum Sunday, former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, now the top foreign policy official for the European Union, said the opposite is true.
“Contrary to what some may say, woke, decadent Europe is not facing civilizational erasure,” she said, arguing that the values embodied by European countries should be applauded, not derided.
“We are … pushing humanity forward, trying to defend human rights and all this, which is actually bringing prosperity for people. So that’s why it’s very hard for me to believe these accusations,” Ms. Kallas said.
Those two very different takes highlight the growing daylight that exists between Europe and the U.S. under President Trump, who for years has publicly criticized Europe for, among other things, not spending enough on its own defense. European nations have dramatically ramped up defense spending in recent years, with some leaders on the continent directly crediting Mr. Trump for the change.
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READ MORE: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/feb/15/rubio-us-defend-renew-western-civilization-ready-alone-europe-wont/
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