Nothing in war is fair or honest. That is the nature of war and it has been the same throughout the centuries. It has been the same for wars in which all nationalities have died, that includes canadians, aussies, brits and americans. We can talk about this philosophically, but it's not realistic. Man, as a species, is a violent animal and I'm afraid no amount of sweet talk is going to change that. It is what it is and we are stuck with working within this reality. To think otherwise, is niave.
As far as Bin Ladin is concerned, he committed unbelievable crimes against this country and it's people. If these crimes had been committed on your soil, to your people, you might feel differently about this man's death. It comes down to this, for those people who died and for their families, they deserved to have the man who ordered the attacks suffer the same fate. You can say that's vengence if you wish, maybe it is. But if it had been my loved one, he thought was so insignificant, I wouldn't want to think of him living out a long happy life and doing the same to someone else.
Me personally, I'm not cheering for the man's death, but I'm not ambivilant either. The loss of human life should never be taken lightly. You say someone worse my take his place. You might be right, but that's not the point. His was a crime that could not go unpunished and as is often to case, a violent life ends violently.
Please don't take offense, I mean no insult to anyone, these are just my opinions, yours my differ, that's ok.