Rubio calls for

Athens — As the United States wages a costly war with Iran and Europe struggles with the grinding conflict in Ukraine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stood before the Acropolis on Wednesday and reached back more than two millennia to argue that the answer to the West's current problems can be found, at least in part, in ancient Greece.

"Here, in Athens, we found the first full realization of all the essential traits that would come to define the West," Rubio said, citing "fierce individuality and relentless ambition," and "a yearning for discovery, for adventure, risk and glory."

"The ideal of many ideologies in our time has, frankly, become a world of perfect safety, a world devoid of risk or failure, where neither the glory of victory, nor the shame of defeat," Rubio said. "We hold the most exceptional things among us hostage to the average, the ordinary, the mediocre."

The speech expanded on themes Rubio laid out at the Munich Security Conference in February, when he warned that Europe faced "civilizational erasure" and argued that the U.S. and Europe needed to recover a shared Western identity. Still, his conciliatory tone in Munich came as a relief to European officials after Vice President JD Vance had used the same stage a year earlier to sharply rebuke the continent's leaders.

In front of the Acropolis, Rubio traced the development of the West from ancient Greece through Rome, European Christianity and eventually the United States, citing Alexander the Great, Caesar, Charlemagne and Columbus along the way. He portrayed America's frontier expansion, industrial development and space program as later expressions of the same drive.

"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 and servitude and decline. We will either choose to act now or lose the choice to act at all," he said.

The history Rubio presented was arguably selective. He spoke relatively little about democracy or political equality at a site closely associated with both, focusing instead on competition, national loyalty and the willingness to take risks. He argued that modern societies too often seek "perfect safety" and concern themselves more with "the comfort of the worst than the potential of the best."

The highly produced speech came during a trip largely devoted to more immediate questions of American power: where U.S. forces can operate, how NATO allies can help counter Russia and Iran, and how American energy can displace Russian supplies in Europe.

In Athens, Rubio met Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis for the sixth U.S.-Greece Strategic Dialogue, focused on defense, energy and regional security. At a news conference Wednesday, Rubio called Greece a "strong and model NATO ally," while Gerapetritis said Greece could provide maritime assistance in the Strait of Hormuz if a viable peace process is established.

"This is not the format where we're going to address this," Rubio said. "Suffice it to say our embassy has been doing a great job. Our ambassador has been a strong ambassador." Guilfoyle has denied wrongdoing.

Rubio's visit and Acropolis address come at a complex moment for the Trump administration.

Asked Wednesday by CBS News to clarify the U.S. position, Rubio declined to say what level of enrichment, if any, Washington might accept.