Around 10:45 pm EST, nearly every network and cable news network preempted regular programming to pre-announce an announcement made by the President of the United States: Osama bin Ladin is dead.

About an hour later, Barack Obama walked down the long red carpet in the wide main corridor of the White House, and stood at a podium alone to address the nation.

“It was nearly 10 years ago that a bright September day was darkened…” He went on the heart-wrenchingly, poetically describe the horrors of September 11, 2001, an event masterminded by Osama bin Ladin.

Ironically, the announcement of the man’s death came 8 years, to the very day, of George W. Bush’s famous “mission accomplished” speech.

According to the President’s remarks, bin Ladin’s death has been at least 8 months in the making. Obama gave orders to U. S. intelligence agencies to find bin Ladin, and last summer agents received a tip that pointed to his presence in Pakistan.

After many months of gathering intelligence, Obama finally determined he had enough information to strike. Last week, he authorized an operation to “bring [bin Ladin] to justice,” i.e., to kill him. A “small team of Americans” carried out the operation, and no Americans were harmed in the attack. Osama bin Ladin was killed in a firefight, and U. S. operatives have taken custody of his body.

Obama called this our “most significant achievement to date in our effort against Al Qaeda.” He also reminded the country that the United States is not at war with Islam, and that “The American people did not choose this fight. It came to our shores.” To all the families and people affected by 9/11, he said “We have never forgotten your loss.”

It was a beautiful little speech. Now, here’s why we’re terribly unhappy with it:

After watching almost an hour of cable news coverage that preceded Obama’s momentous announcement, we got our hopes up that the President would display some sort of humanity (because the news media absolutely did not). Make no mistake, Osama bin Ladin was a terrorist and he orchestrated one of the most horrific events in all of American history, perhaps in world history. He was a bad guy, and no one questions that.

But it is an ugly thing to overtly celebrate the death of any human being. The President stated that Osama’s demise should be “welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity,” but we must humbly disagree. It is more humane by far to be saddened that this action was necessary, to feel sympathy for those whose grim task it was to carry out this mission… even to find understanding for those who would mourn him, and some will. Even the most evil of human beings were born of a woman, a mother who loved the child that she brought into the world -- as is only right. We will not celebrate that a man has been killed, only that global terrorism has been dealt a fatal blow (and that our intelligence agencies do get some things right).