If you live long enough, you can trace the river of history apart from the smaller tributaries and streams. You’ve watched it rise or fall according to the acts of men. You’ve seen great leaders bend it where it wasn’t going, and bad leaders redirect it into the shoals. And you can tell what will lead to greatness and what will end in disaster. Which is how I know Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s speech last Saturday at the Munich Security Conference was not only the finest of this century, but the most potentially consequential. “America is a child of Europe,” Rubio said early in the speech. “The source of our culture, laws, and faith. He then implied what we older observers understand — that Europe and Britain are on the brink of falling like the Roman Empire that once occupied those very lands, due to the suicidal choices of their leaders. Unchecked migration that erodes national identity, policies that prioritize abstract global ideals over the concrete well-being of citizens, an overreliance on supranational structures … have contributed to a sense of decline in parts of the West. The initial mistake was embracing the anti-nationalist philosophy that Soviet communism had implanted. It metastasized in the West even after Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher defeated the source, dragging a resistant Europe with them. And post-Reagan America — beginning with his weakling Vice President — had started down the same drain. That infamous wall that had cleaved this nation into two came down, and with it an evil empire, and the East and West became one again. But the euphoria of this triumph led us to a dangerous delusion: that we had entered, quote, “the end of history;” that every nation would now be a liberal democracy; that the ties formed by trade and by commerce alone would now replace nationhood. The former state’s toxic ideology was spread by the Useful Idiots controlling academia, media, and major parties in the West. They attacked the two most formidable forces that stood against them — faith and family. In Europe and Britain, native childbirth and church attendance have dropped to almost nothing. And in their place, a new religion took hold, which Rubio named and condemned. To appease a climate cult, we have imposed energy policies on ourselves that are impoverishing our people, even as our competitors exploit oil and coal and natural gas and anything else — not just to power their economies, but to use as leverage against our own. By repeating “we,” Rubio included the misled turn-of-the-century America. He recognizes how progressivism damaged the country, by hailing abominations like abortion, transgenderism, misandry, and anti-whiteness. For a while, they controlled all information, quashing any contradictory truth. Two tough men put an end to this in the United States. Britain and Europe have not been so fortunate. They’re being destroyed from within by the enemy their leaders welcomed, as historically literate observers knew would happen more than a decade ago. In a pursuit of a world without borders, we opened our doors to an unprecedented wave of mass migration that threatens the cohesion of our societies, the continuity of our culture, and the future of our people. Rubio did not mince words of warning to the audience. Yet he maintained a hopeful tone throughout. “To those who say the transatlantic bond is fraying: I say look around this room. We belong together. Our histories and our fates will always be linked. When Europe thrives, America is safer and more prosperous. When America leads with strength, Europe has a reliable partner.” One of the greatest cultures of all time has turned into an Orwellian nightmare, where police arrest and harass citizens for protesting … the rape of young girls. Rubio concluded his speech to a standing ovation, signaling how far and fast the Trump Administration has shifted geopolitics away from the Left. And Europe may yet rise to the occasion. The continent has enough strong Christian leaders and traditionalist forces to deplete the by-invitation Muslim invasion. While socialist Spain just legalized up to half a million majority Muslim migrants, Italy’s Georgia Meloni is sending warships to blockade migrant boats. “There is an ongoing process of Islamization in Europe, which is very far from the values of our civilization,” Meloni said. Not coincidentally, the former Soviet bloc — Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic — have taken a similar hardline stance, openly elevating Christianity over Islam. Viktor Orbán (accent mark over the a), PM of Hungary: “Christianity is Europe’s last hope … If all this continues, in the big cities of Europe there will be a Muslim majority.” Robert Fico, PM of Slovakia: “Islam has no place in Slovakia.” Miloš Zeman, ex-President of Czechia: “Islam is an anti-civilization…. Multiculturalism is a fiction.” Which leaves the once Great Britain. One of the greatest cultures of all time has turned into an Orwellian nightmare, where police arrest and harass citizens for protesting Muslim crimes, primarily the rape of young girls. It may have one last hope for salvation — the new Restore Britain party led by Rupert Lowe, whom Elon Musk endorsed. “Britain is a Christian country, built on Christian values, with Christian traditions,” Lowe said. “Those supposedly ‘leading’ us would do well to remember that.” Secretary of State Rubio certainly will. READ MORE from Lou Aguilar: The Kids Will Be All Right A Fountainhead for the Screen Art The Washington Toast