Marco Rubio: Is US Ready for 'Period of Conflict?'

WASHINGTON—During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) spoke with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, inquiring if the United States is ready and capable of entering "a period of conflict."

While Sen. Rubio notes this does not necessarily translate into war, countries such as Germany and Japan are remilitarizing.

Additionally, countries have sought alliances with the United States and its allies, or with China, Russia, and possibly Iran.

"We have the very clear outlines of this emerging conflict. The US, the West, the democracies in an alliance. The China, Russia alliance. They don't want to call it that, but that's what it is, in conjunction with others like Iran potentially participating as well, and then these dozens and dozens of developing, so-called non-aligned nations all trying to cut deals for themselves." said Sen. Rubio.

Especially on the economic front, noted Rubio, as nations have sought supply chain diversity, sanction evasion, and movement away from the US dollar and Swiss banking system.

As such, Rubio questions if the US is fully aware and equipped to deal with the geopolitical shift.

Rubio also notes that the Solomon Islands signed a security agreement with China in May, saying this was after the US spoke against the country's same-sex marriage laws.

"Haven't we now reached a point where, frankly, we have to understand we are entering a period of geopolitical competition bordering on conflict? Diplomatic conflict, economic conflict, and God forbid but potentially military conflict. And as a result, we need to govern ourselves accordingly. Not that these values don't matter, but that our approach has to look very different than it did five, ten, fifteen years ago," Rubio continues.

Moreover, Rubio concludes by saying that these values we hold will not matter should we lose our economic, military, and technological power in the near future.

"Isn't it time for us to view the world through the lens, frankly, of the beginning stages of a geopolitical conflict?," he reiterates.