Guantanamo is a chief recruiting tool for al-Qaida. It has put a wedge between the United States and at least some of its allies.
Interpretation
Guantanamo Bay has negatively impacted America's international relationships and has been exploited by terrorist groups for recruitment.
In this quote, Eric Holder emphasizes the detrimental effects of Guantanamo Bay on the United States' standing in the world. He suggests that the prison has become a symbol that aids terrorist organizations like al-Qaida in their recruitment efforts, portraying the U.S. as an oppressor and alienating some of its allies who may be sympathetic to the plight of the detainees.
In practice
During a debate on national security, one could reference this quote to discuss the implications of detention practices on relationships with allies.
While he was in the service, in the South and in Oklahoma, he was refused service at a couple of places where he was in uniform, and was told that African Americans, blacks, Negros, were not served. And in spite of that, I've never known a man who loved this country more than my father did.
Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards
In a lot of ways, civil rights division is the conscience of the Justice Department. You can almost measure what kind of Justice Department you have by what kind of civil rights division that you have.
One of the things I learned is that you've got to deal with the underlying social problems if you want to have an impact on crime - that it's not a coincidence that you see the greatest amount of violent crime where you see the greatest amount of social dysfunction.
Those who peacefully gather to express sympathy for the family of Michael Brown must have their rights respected at all times. And journalists must not be harassed or prevented from covering a story that needs to be told.
Communities of color don't understand what it means to be a police officer, the fear that police officers have in just being on the streets.
When the three branches of government have failed to represent the citizenry and the mass of the media has failed to represent the citizenry, then the citizenry better represent the citizenry.
If we choose to keep those tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, if we choose to keep a tax break for corporate jet owners, if we choose to keep tax breaks for oil and gas companies that are making hundreds of billions of dollars, then that means we've got to cut some kids off from getting a college scholarship.
Give me your four year olds, and in a generation I will build a socialist state.
American politics is a struggle, not of men but of forces. The men become every year more and more creatures of force, massed about central power houses.
There's not a liberal America and a conservative America - there's the United States of America.
The chief internal enemies of any state are not spies nor saboteurs nor the paid agents of foreign governments. They are, on the contrary, those myriads of public officials who betray the trust imposed upon them by the people.
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