Secretary of State Marco Rubio stood up in Munich and sent Europe an unequivocal message to a civilization in the midst of slow suicide. “We in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline.”

Here’s the whole speech:

Transcript here.

During the course of Rubio’s speech, there was some spontaneous applause, a few laughs, and a standing ovation at the end. If it may have sounded a kinder, gentler speech than the one VP J.D. Vance gave last year, it was only in tone, not substance.

Vance’s was a wake-up call in the midst of a Europe reeling under the consequences of unfettered invasion and unrest given within only weeks of the beginning of the Trump administration. It was the line in the sand. Rubio’s speech yesterday was both an assurance that the work started last year, and the principles and the policies behind it, haven’t gone away and will continue.

But let me also ask you: How will you even begin to think through the kinds of budgeting questions [sic] if we don’t know what it is that we’re defending in the first place? I’ve heard a lot already in my conversations — and I’ve had many, many great conversations with many people gathered here in this room — I’ve heard a lot about what you need to defend yourselves from. And, of course, that’s important. But what has seemed a little bit less clear to me, and certainly I think to many of the citizens of Europe, is what exactly it is that you’re defending yourselves for? What is the positive vision that animates this shared security compact that we all believe is so important? ~~ J.D. Vance Feb. 14, 2025

National security, which this conference is largely about, is not merely series of technical questions – how much we spend on defense or where, how we deploy it, these are important questions. They are. But they are not the fundamental one. The fundamental question we must answer at the outset is what exactly are we defending, 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. ~~ Marco Rubio Feb. 14, 2026

Rubio doubled down in his speech that the idea, post-WWII, of a borderless, “rules-based global order” was nothing more than a dangerous delusion. That it ignored human nature and national interests. Rubio was forceful in citing the richness of Western Civilization, its historically liberal and Christian-faith-based principles. And he called Europe out on its capture by an ideology that seeks to demand the West apologize for even existing.

… we do not want our allies to be shackled by guilt and shame. We want allies who are proud of their culture and of their heritage … we do not want allies to rationalize the broken status quo rather than reckon with what is necessary to fix it, for we in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline. … we want an alliance that boldly races into the future. And the only fear we have is the fear of the shame of not leaving our nations prouder, stronger, and wealthier for our children.

An alliance ready to defend our people, to safeguard our interests, and to preserve the freedom of action that allows us to shape our own destiny – not one that exists to operate a global welfare state and atone for the purported sins of past generations.

The orgy of self-flagellation we’ve seen over the past several decades has been less about so-called atonement for the sins of our fathers than the capitulation to the looters and moochers who seek power, including the possession of things they could never create on their own.

Rubio not only didn’t apologize for our existence, but he also plainly and proudly cited Christopher Columbus, English colonists, Scots-Irish frontiersmen, German farmers, French explorers and the Spaniards who helped birth the American cowboy archetype.

Rubio ended his remarks with an invitation wrapped in a challenge. Yes, we want our allyship to continue. Yes, we want our nations on both sides of the Atlantic to thrive and prosper … BUT … Europe must make a choice to reverse from its embrace of decline and an anti-Western ideology.

We want to do it together with you, with a Europe that is proud of its heritage and of its history; with a Europe that has the spirit of creation of liberty that sent ships out into uncharted seas and birthed our civilization; with a Europe that has the means to defend itself and the will to survive.

Does Europe have that will to survive?

Do we?

featured image, screenshot from YouTube CSPAN broadcast