THE 48-HOUR RULE STANDS! – AT 9:47 A.M. ET:  Yesterday I mentioned my 48-hour rule, which holds that it takes 48 hours for the left, especially the international left, to reorganize after a major event and start spouting its usual stuff.  I'm proud to report that the rule stands.  The left was already moving yesterday.  From Reuters:

The killing of Osama bin Laden when he was unarmed has raised concerns the United States may have gone too far in acting as policeman, judge and executioner of the world's most wanted man...

...Former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt told German TV the operation could have incalculable consequences in the Arab world at a time of unrest there.

"It was quite clearly a violation of international law."

Perhaps Herr Schmidt might examine his own country's vigorous trade with Iran, despite international sanctions.  In fact, he might examine his country's history.

It was a view echoed by high-profile Australian human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson.

"It's not justice. It's a perversion of the term. Justice means taking someone to court, finding them guilty upon evidence and sentencing them," Robertson told Australian Broadcasting Corp television from London.

"This man has been subject to summary execution, and what is now appearing after a good deal of disinformation from the White House is it may well have been a cold-blooded assassination."

Robertson said bin Laden should have stood trial, just as World War Two Nazis were tried at Nuremburg or former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was put on trial at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague after his arrest in 2001.

Seems to me the Nazis tried at Nuremburg were captured after the war was over.  Did you hear anyone on bin Laden's side declare a cease-fire?  This is dry rot.

Gert-Jan Knoops, a Dutch-based international law specialist, said bin Laden should have been arrested and extradited to the United States. "The Americans say they are at war with terrorism and can take out their opponents on the battlefield," Knoops said. "But in a strictly formal sense, this argument does not stand up."

A senior Muslim cleric in New Delhi, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, said US troops could have easily captured bin Laden.

"America is promoting jungle rule everywhere, whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan or Libya. People have remained silent for long but now it has crossed all limits."

And of course, right here in the United States, our own beloved leftists are back to their never-changing agenda.  If the world exists for another 500 years, they'll be saying the same thing.  Why here's leftist suprema Katrina Vanden Heuvel, who runs the fringe left Nation magazine, giving us her wisdom in The Washington Post:

Now, with bin Laden buried at sea, it is time to end the “global war on terror” we have lived with for a decade. It is time to stop defining the post-Sept. 11 struggle against stateless terrorists as “war.” Framing the fight against terror as a war was a conscious decision made by President Bush, Karl Rove and others in those first days after Sept. 11 — a decision that destroyed the unity President Obama reminded us of in his address. 

I don't recall the destruction of that unity based on the "war" theme.  Do you?

Today it is time not only to end the use of the term “war on terror,” but to end the war itself.

It is time to bring our troops home.

Which, of course, is exactly what old Katrina was saying before bin Laden had his misfortune.

May 4, 2011