A THUG BY ANY OTHER NAME:

Zarqawi's Journey: From Dropout to Prisoner to Insurgent Leader: The life story of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the man U.S. officials say is the biggest terrorist threat in Iraq, emerges from interviews with friends, relatives and officials. (JEFFREY GETTLEMAN, 7/13/04, NY Times)

In Jordan, where he stamped strong impressions on people as he climbed the ladder of outlaw groups, friends and associates described the making of a militant. They say he grew up in rough-and-tumble circumstances and adopted religion with the same intensity he showed for drinking and fighting, though he became far less a revolutionary mastermind than a dull-witted hothead with gruff charisma.

These people, who knew Mr. Zarqawi until he disappeared into the terrorist murk of Afghanistan four years ago, acknowledge that he may have changed. But they say that while the man they knew could be capable of great brutality, they have a hard time imagining him as the guiding light of an Iraqi insurgency.

"When we would write bad things about him in our prison magazine, he would attack us with his fists," said Yousef Rababa, who was imprisoned with Mr. Zarqawi for militant activity. "That's all he could do. He's not like bin Laden with ideas and vision. He had no vision."

Vision? These guys are garden variety nihilists, not visionaries.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 13, 2004 9:36 AM