I'd have celebrated if the news had been "bin Laden" captured -- particularly if the end result would be that he would spend the rest of his life sitting around

I'd have celebrated if the news had been "bin Laden" captured -- particularly if the end result would be that he would spend the rest of his life sitting around in prison, waiting to die peacefully of old age. No martyrdom, and an excellent vindication of American values & justice. That would have truly been a shot-not-fired heard 'round the world. And of course, celebrating that is not blood-lust. But instead, we shot him in the head, and represents a failure (for the reasons you mention, but also because it's very much "an eye for an eye"), and celebrating that is much harder for me to do. We'll have to wait and see what measures they took during the raid, to enable taking him alive, but from what I've read so far they didn't take any.