West must defend freedom, faith and family to survive, says President Trump

Originally published in cnsnews.com

The values that bind America and Europe together – freedom, faith and family — are threatened from the outside by common enemies and from the inside by bureaucracy, President Donald Trump told a cheering crowd of Poles in Warsaw on Thursday.

“The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive. Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?

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“We can have the largest economies and the most lethal weapons anywhere on Earth. But if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak. And we will not survive.” he said.

In his 33-minute speech (View below), interrupted by cheers at times, Trump warned against the “steady creep of government bureaucracy that drains the vitality and wealth of the people.

“The West became great, not because of paperwork and regulations, but because people were allowed to chase their dreams and pursue their destinies. Americans, Poles and nations of Europe value individual freedom and sovereignty. We must work together to confront forces, whether they come from inside or out, from the south and the east, the threat over time to undermine these values and to erase the bonds of culture, faith and tradition that make us who we are,” said Trump.

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He said the forces that threaten our common values are doomed to fail – “if we want them to fail.”

“And if we don’t forget who we are, we just can’t be beaten,” he added. “Americans will never forget. The nations of Europe will never forget…There is nothing like our community of nations. The world has never known anything like our community of nations.”

Trump continued: “We write symphonies. We pursue innovation. We celebrate our ancient heroes and embrace our timeless traditions and customs and always seek to explore and discover brand-new frontiers. We reward brilliance. We strive for excellence. And cherish inspiring works of art that honor God. We treasure the rule of law and protect the right to free speech and free expression. We empower women as pillars of our society and of our success. We put faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, at the center of our lives. And we debate everything. We challenge everything. We seek to know everything, so that we can better know ourselves.

“And above all, we value the dignity of every human life, protect the rights of every person and share the hope of every soul to live in freedom. That is who we are. Those are the priceless ties that bind us together, as nations, as allies and as a civilization. What we have, what we inherit…from our ancestors has never existed to this extent before. And if we fail to preserve it, it will never ever exist again. So, we cannot fail. This great community of nations has something else in common. In every one of them, it is the people, not the powerful, who have always formed the foundation of freedom and the cornerstone of our defense.”

Trump said the values and traditions we have inherited from our ancestors “will never exist again” – “if we fail to preserve (them). So we cannot fail.”

He praised Poland as an inspiring example of a nation that could not be broken: “So together let us all fight like the Poles for family, for freedom, for country and for God.”

Trump also gave a strong endorsement of Nato’s Article 5, which provides for the common defense of allied nations: