Pose of Conquering Ancient Iran Amid Flight from Fear of Iranian Drones | Scathing Attack on Marco Rubio: Your Speech Reads Like a Video Game Script

In a Guardian op-ed, Ted Widmer, former White House speechwriter and historian, criticized Marco Rubio's speech in Athens on reviving Western civilization. He wrote that the US government's approach to science, culture and international relations is leading the country toward a 'Stone Age' instead of realizing a 'Golden Age.'

Ted Widmer, a former White House speechwriter and history researcher, criticized Marco Rubio's speech in Athens about the revival of Western civilization in a note in the Guardian newspaper, writing that the US government's approach to science, culture and international relations, instead of realizing the dream of a "Golden Age", is pushing this country towards the "Stone Age".

According to Arjan's ambassador, Ted Widmer, a former White House speechwriter and history researcher, wrote in a detailed note for the Guardian newspaper that the designers of this program had undoubtedly worked hard to create a visual space and the result looked magnificent.

On October 7, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered an important speech in the open air of Athens, with the Acropolis behind him. The sun was setting and drowning the ancient site and the Parthenon in a golden light; A golden light that, however, did not indicate a real "golden age".

This speech was not similar to Pericles' defense of democracy; Instead, Rubio offered a frightening vision of the choices facing the West, arguing that America and Europe must rediscover the values ​​of "exploration and conquest" that have fueled their civilizational expansion for centuries, or face decline and insignificance.

At long stretches, the speech was an exercise in nostalgia and mourning for the decline of Western civilization, as if he were giving a seminar at Hillsdale College or the Claremont Institute. In fact, even a first semester university class could challenge most of the presuppositions of this lecture.

It is true that the founders of America had deeply studied the literature of ancient Greece and Rome, but their reference to these texts was to justify their hope for the establishment of democracy among equal people, not to justify a civilization based on conquest and conquest. Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, acknowledged his borrowing from Cicero, who wrote that the citizens of a republic should have equal rights, and Abraham Lincoln considered Euclid, the Greek mathematician, to be one of the factors influencing his thought, because he defined equality as an inviolable concept.

Falsifying history and forgetting the eastern sources of knowledge

Moreover, the fundamental question is what exactly is called "the West"? We have a vague picture of it, but the details are very complicated. Has Vladimir Putin been invited to this party? Russians also consider their history rooted in Greece and Rome. What can be said about Adolf Hitler? Few leaders were as fascinated by Rome and ancient Greece as Hitler, as he made it clear at the 1936 Berlin Olympics and glorified the sublime culture resulting from the hardships of the war with the Iranians in the book "My Battle"; Sentences that could easily fit in Rubio's speech.

On the other hand, there is the undeniable fact that a great part of human knowledge flowed into Greece and Rome from other origins, Eastern rather than Western; Calligraphy came from ancient Sumer in present-day Iraq, an important part of mathematical thinking originated from the Arabs, and the young Pythagoras traveled in Syria; Even during the period when Iranians and Greeks were fighting each other, there was deep cultural exchange between them.

Rubio seemed to enjoy retelling the story of a small band of Greek warriors who defended the Acropolis against Persian invaders. But this epic show was performed right in the week when the war against Iran has an erosive and unfavorable trend; In the week that the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln limped back to San Diego, 12 B-1 bombers were rushed out of a base in Britain, fearing drone strikes, and attacks on shipping have soared. The price of oil is still at a staggering level; A battle that the heroes mentioned in Rubio's speech (Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne and Hernán Cortés) would never have rushed to accept as the legacy of a conqueror.

The theory of great men or the script of a computer game?

It would be far from fair to ignore that there were some noble parts and signs of historical awareness in this speech, but Rubio repeatedly slipped into the dangerous theme that history is the product of "great men"; Those who overcome adversity and bring down weaker nations. It was as if he was writing a text for a computer game; A field to measure and prove the merit of great men, where they can display their stubborn individualism, relentless ambition and desire to conquer and honor.

Previously, American presidents had also spoken about avoiding the collapse of empires; Theodore Roosevelt created the allegory of the man on the battlefield, and John F. Kennedy pledged to pay any price for the survival of freedom, but both of them had democratic ideals in mind, and Kennedy emphasized human rights and the demands of people outside the Western world. In addition to their military background, they were studious; The main memorial to Kennedy is the Kennedy Center, which is closed these days and has an unknown fate, which is a few steps away from the Department of State under Rubio's order; This makes the minister's claim about pursuing literary and artistic achievements absurd.

In a situation where scientific budgets and climate research in the United States have been severely slashed and Washington has withdrawn from the World Health Organization, Rubio's claim that Americans are curious to unlock the secrets of the universe seems unbalanced, as Arti Prabhakar, the former director of the White House Science and Technology Policy Office, has emphasized that these budget cuts will take us not to the Golden Age, but to the Stone Age.

At the foot of the Parthenon, Rubio extended a hand of friendship to Europe and said that Europe can wake up from a long sleep, but the path he laid before the allies is difficult and exhausting. The Athens speech was nothing more than a beautiful stage setting for photographers; No new policy was presented and no ideal beyond the right to exploit resources and dominate others was expressed; An image that is miles away from the enlightenment of America's founding era and testifies to the darkening of Washington's political horizon under the fading light of the Acropolis sunset.