rarely has a human being more clearly deserved to die than osama bin laden. there really is such a thing as terrorism. it really is distinct from other military or death-dealing action. and it is not only monstrous; it is demented. it is not a tactic: its means are detached from its ends in a way that makes it entirely irrational and also, in effect, unbelievably stupid.

there are different ways of being evil. one is bureaucratic or technocratic: an excess of rationality, a blank conformity, the mobilization of an entire society to achieve evil ends: the genocide or unnecessary war, or oppression or exploitation of entire populations. but then there is purposeless, mindless, impressionistic, random, improvisational killing: anyone anywhere for any reason or no reason at all. 

i don't think that jubilation or celebration is exactly the right response, though it is understandable. but a quiet appreciation for a moment of actualized justice and justified revenge (two notions that are identical in this as in so many other cases, if you ask me) is sensible.