We Should All Be Rooting for Rubio

It's a test

Whether you’re rooting for Marco Rubio in his dual roles of Secretary of State and National Security Adviser is a test of whether you’re a genuine American patriot, care about freedom and the free world, or are some kind of small-minded political hack obsessed with winning elections.

Actually, Mr. Rubio has more roles than just those two, significant as they are. He’s also the Acting USAID administrator and the Acting Archivist. If that’s not enough, J. D. Vance joked that there’s an opening for a Catholic male coming up in Rome, although, as Mr. Rubio himself pointed out, he’s married and is therefore disqualified for that job.

President Trump obviously has a fair amount of confidence in the articulate former Florida senator. I can understand it. I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Mr. Rubio in 2015 and subsequently ended up watching some of the Super Bowl the following January with him and his children by accident of being trapped in the same snowbound New Hampshire hotel. He was great with his kids, the sure sign of a first-rate human being.

But it’s certainly not just because of that random encounter that I’m rooting for Rubio to succeed on three fronts—Russia/Ukraine, Iran and China.

I have a suspicion though that if one of the three goes on the back burner, it will be Russia/Ukraine. In fact, it already is, if you are to believe State Dept. porte parole Tammy Bruce—and I do. She was backed up by Mr. Rubio himself who practically said as much in an interview with Sean Hannity. The President is apparently fed up with the intransigence of both parties, as well he might be as they continue to destroy and murder each other into oblivion for little purpose. It’s hard to see what the President or his Secretary of State can do at this point to fix this mutual insanity.

In that same interview, Mr. Rubio was characteristically articulate on the matter of Iran that is far from resolved:

“If Iran wants a peaceful civil nuclear program, meaning they want nuclear power plants like other countries in the world have, there’s a way to do it. And that is you build the reactors and you import enriched uranium to fuel those reactors. That’s how dozens of countries around the world do it.

“The only countries in the world that enrich uranium are the ones that have nuclear weapons. Iran is at—they’re claiming they don’t want a weapon, but they would—what they’re basically asking is to be the only non-weapon country in the world that’s enriching uranium.”

Of course Rubio is taking Iran at their own words here for strategic reasons. Later in the interview he makes clear what we all know—the mullahs have been lying consistently and use the negotiations to prolong their clandestine nuclear activities.

As for what will happen should the Iranians not cooperate, Mr Rubio was equally explicit:

“And now it’s a matter of whether or not they’re going to take it. And the President was very, very clear he would lead the effort to stop them from ever achieving that nuclear weapon. And that would mean – that statement was obvious in terms of that he would use military force to destroy those facilities. We have the capacity, obviously, to do it.”

If I were to bet, I would wager the Iranians will not “take it,” although they will stonewall for as long as possible. This is true although things are looking worse and worse for their clients Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis (plus all those in between). The mullahs are more afraid of their own people than they are of anybody else, as well they should be. The Islamic regime could well unravel if they give up the possibility of nuclear weapons.

Moreover, Iran and, for that matter, Russia and especially the Chinese do not think in terms of four-year increments that parallel presidential terms. They play the so-called “long game.” This is a privilege of autocracies, if you can call it that. It also creates a serious problem for the West in doing business with tyrants.

That disadvantage should underscore how important that on these foreign policy issues Americans downgrade their partisanship for a moment and line up behind Mr. Rubio and the President. If they fail, there will be plenty of time to remonstrate with them later.

Not only is that my headline, it is the heartfelt purpose of this article. The world is at one of those epoch crossroads. Our country is unfortunately filled with people, partly because of the reactionary open door to immigrants of the previous administration, who do not wish it or us well. Too many Democrats, desperate to return to power, pander to these people at the risk of undermining the basis of Western civilization.

Sorry if that sounds like an exaggeration. It is not. A point of reference is the previous Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who was so desperate for his “team” to win he organized the 51 present and former intelligence agents to claim in a letter the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation when he and most of the signees well knew it was not. You can’t work more against the interests of your country than that.

Reading or listening to what the new Secretary of State said is reassuring for a number of reasons, not the least of which is he apparently cleaning up the State Department, moribund for decades.. Also reassured are those of us who have been somewhat skeptical of presidential envoy Steve Witkoff’s knowledge of Middle East politics and his apparent reliance on Qatar. Others have questioned Witkoff’s competence vis-à-vis Russia. The degree to which these portfolios will be in Rubio’s hands is a good thing.

All of this, of course, relates to China, as does everything these days. As I type this, we have learned the Chinese may be willing to negotiate with President Trump regarding tariffs. If so, that’s a big victory.

Another is the elevation of Marco Rubio. Let’s get behind him, fellow Americans.