The power of America's military not only rests on our technology, our weaponry, our hardware. It rests on the character and the resolve of our people.
Kamala Harris
U.S. Military Academy at West Point Commencement 2023, 2023
Video starts at 85:00 — the moment this quote was spoken
The Story Behind This Quote
After an extended passage on technological innovation — AI, autonomous vehicles, virtual reality, cyber warfare — Harris pulls back to make a deeper point. She has praised this generation for growing up online, for seeing what can be 'unburdened by what has been,' for their training in robotics and systems engineering. But the ultimate source of military power isn't any of those tools. America has no greater resource, no greater strategic asset, than the men and women who wear the uniform. The soldiers are the best trained, most prepared, most effective, most cohesive, and most lethal warriors in the world — and that's a function of character, not circuitry.