Y para el cruel que me arranca
El corazon con que vivo
Cardo ni ortiga cultivo
Cultivo la rosa blanca

Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera…

What to do with the Guantanameros? Not the natives, but the foreigners whom we have made into Guantanameros? As the Obama administration runs out of time on it’s self-imposed (and unfortunately arbitrary) deadline for emptying the place, Sen. Lindsey Graham had this to say today:

“The issues involved in closing Guantanamo go way beyond where to put the prisoners.  I have been in discussions for months with the Obama Administration on a national security-centric approach to closing Guantanamo based on the law of war.  Unfortunately, I fear the Obama Administration is choosing to go down a different, and potentially more dangerous, path.

“From the unprecedented decision to try enemy combatants captured on the battlefield in civilian courts to the conflicting testimony of Administration officials on long term detention to the alarming number of detainees who have been determined eligible for release, I fear the Administration has lost its bearings in an effort to close Guantanamo as quickly as possible.  The Administration has sent a confusing message to our troops on the battlefield who no longer know when civilian law enforcement rules or the laws of war might apply.

“I continue to agree with our military leaders that closing Guantanamo is in our own national interests, if done correctly.  However, I increasingly find myself at odds with the Administration’s approach.

“I hope the Administration hits the pause button on closing Guantanamo and works with Congress to develop a comprehensive strategy to keep dangerous terrorists off the battlefield.”

I believe the administration wants to handle this right, but is hobbled by expectations among the base from the election — and by that deadline. Unfortunate. As you know, I was happy with putting them down the road in the Charleston brig, if that was the best place for them. But whether they go there or to Illinois or to the far side of the moon, the subject deserves careful consideration, so that it’s done right.

The thing about this issue is that it didn’t have to come down to a partisan disagreement. Whether Obama or McCain had been elected, we’d be closing Guantánamo (the prison part, that is). That makes this a test for whether Obama can run things along lines that build on our agreements rather than our differences. It’s a test for Graham and McCain as well as for Obama. They should neither be buffaloed into something they don’t feel right about because of their desire to have consensus, nor disagree merely to show they’re being tough-minded. (I think the president’s courageous — in the sense of standing up to the more emotional parts of his base — stand at Oslo, in which he so clearly put being president above being head of his party, calls for some equal statesmanship on the part of his loyal opposition.) Operating in a truly above-partisan manner is way more complicated than the simple-minded business of always agreeing with your “side” and always shouting insults at the other. But it’s an eminently worthwhile effort to make.

As for a translation of the verse above, here you go:

And for the cruel one
who would tear out this heart with which I live
I do not cultivate nettles nor thistles
I cultivate a white rose…