"We need a very strong military to protect the freedoms we do have"
About this Quote
As a Hollywood producer synonymous with jets, covert ops, and righteous heroics, Bruckheimer isn’t speaking from a think tank. He’s speaking from a cultural position that helped normalize the military as spectacle and reassurance, especially in the post-9/11 era when American pop entertainment and national security messaging often shared the same aesthetics: clarity, urgency, good guys with hardware. The quote’s intent is less about budgets than about legitimacy. It offers a simple trade: accept the necessity of overwhelming force and you get to keep the life you recognize.
The subtext is the familiar bargain of the security state, polished into a line that can fit on a bumper sticker. It implies that freedom is fragile and that its enemies are always external, which conveniently sidelines harder questions: how militarization can erode liberties at home, how “strong” gets defined, who bears the costs, and who gets protected first. It works because it channels a real fear into a story Americans have been trained to find comforting: safety as the precondition for freedom, delivered by strength you don’t have to see up close.
Quote Details
| Topic | Military & Soldier |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Bruckheimer, Jerry. (2026, January 16). We need a very strong military to protect the freedoms we do have. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-need-a-very-strong-military-to-protect-the-91512/
Chicago Style
Bruckheimer, Jerry. "We need a very strong military to protect the freedoms we do have." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-need-a-very-strong-military-to-protect-the-91512/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"We need a very strong military to protect the freedoms we do have." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-need-a-very-strong-military-to-protect-the-91512/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.







