Images of Osama bin Laden’s mangled face will not be beamed around the world. But it’s worth considering, as we think about the death of bin Laden, how his face looked in life.

It was not the face of a rabid or fulminating zealot. It was not even an angry face. On the contrary, in nearly every photograph, bin Laden bears a benign expression. There is softness to his demeanor. He was reportedly soft-spoken (if intense) with colleagues and reasonably kind, if distant, with his wives and children.