Abdul Karim Khurram, chief of staff to Afghanistan\u2019s former president, has criticised US Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u2019s remarks in Greece, saying in a new note that the speech was \u201cradical\u201d and \u201ccivilisational\u201d and was calling on Europe to prepare for a \u201ccivilisational war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Khurram wrote that he had intended to write about regional developments and the situation in Afghanistan, but that Rubio\u2019s statement had fully captured his attention. According to him, Rubio delivered his speech last Wednesday atop the historic Acropolis hill and in front of the Parthenon temple \u2014 remarks Khurram believes \u201cshould have come out of the mouth of someone like Samuel Huntington, not a secretary of state.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Khurram\u2019s view, Rubio described Western civilisation as the \u201cpillar of the world\u201d and the United States as the \u201cpillar of the West,\u201d and this outlook was a continuation of his comments at the Munich Security Conference, though this time, Khurram said, it was presented \u201cmore intensely and more radically.\u201d<\/p>\n
Khurram also wrote that although Rubio\u2019s reference to the \u201cPersian Empire\u2019s attack,\u201d made at a time of tensions between Washington and Tehran, drew some public attention toward Iran, the central message of the speech goes beyond Iran and could be interpreted as \u201ca call for Europe and countries that see themselves as heirs to Greek and Roman civilisation to prepare for a civilisational war.\u201d<\/p>\n
He described this kind of rhetoric as the behaviour of declining powers and, pointing to the collapse of the Soviet Union, said that on the eve of its downfall, \u201cthe theory of Marxism-Leninism had become ineffective and its followers made nationalism their new refuge.\u201d Khurram added that in Afghanistan too, \u201cdefeated Marxists took refuge in ethnic nationalism and were the ones who started the disaster and civil war.\u201d<\/p>\n
In another part of his note, Khurram described Washington\u2019s current policy as an attempt to mobilise the West against the East, writing: \u201cAmerica, seeing itself in confrontation with China, Russia, Iran and Easterners in general, and finding success in that difficult, wants to pull part of the world to its side by stirring Western civilisational sentiments.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to him, this outlook is among the intellectual foundations of Donald Trump, his vice president and the US secretary of state. Khurram said this current believes Western weakness stems from being cut off from its own \u201croots, culture and history,\u201d and compared it with some Islamic currents that prescribe a \u201creturn to the predecessors\u201d as the solution.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, based on parts of the speech reflected in Khurram\u2019s note, Rubio described the West as being at a \u201ccivilisational turning point\u201d and urged Europe to \u201cwake from its long sleep and rekindle the civilisational fire of the past.\u201d Referring to the role of ancient Greece in shaping Western civilisation, he said, \u201cAmerica\u2019s history is covered with the fingerprints of ancient Greece,\u201d and warned that the West must choose between \u201ccivilisational renewal or handing the next century to its rivals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rubio also recalled Xerxes\u2019 attack on Athens, describing it as an example of \u201ccivilisational resistance,\u201d and said the West today also faces threats that, he claimed, are \u201cjust as real and serious.\u201d In another part of his remarks, he described \u201cextreme individuality, relentless ambition and a desire for discovery and risk\u201d as traits of Western civilisation, and claimed these traits have \u201ceroded\u201d in the modern era.<\/p>\n
The Acropolis and the Parthenon are among the best-known symbols of ancient Greece, and speeches by political figures at these sites usually carry historical and cultural symbolism \u2014 a factor that in this case also shaped Abdul Karim Khurram\u2019s reading and criticism of the US secretary of state\u2019s political message.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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