From CJR:
Who was Musab al-Zarqawi? Evil mastermind or bumbling fool? Intelligent or doltish? Enterprising terrorist or al Queda puppet? As the bloated, bloody face of America’s enemy number one in Iraq dominated the front pages of newspapers today, reporters on the scene could not even agree on the answer to a simple question: Who the hell was this guy?
That he killed many, or at least set off forces that inspired the killing of many, is not in question. But almost everything else is. Here’s the second paragraph of Jeffrey Gettleman’s profile today in the New York Times: “His life story was riddled with contradictions: he was close to Saddam Hussein, he was fighting Mr. Hussein; he had two legs, he had one; he was Palestinian, he was Jordanian; he was right-handed, he was left-handed; he was a cunning leader, he was an illiterate brute.”
Indeed, Gettleman goes so far as to state that “several people who knew Mr. Zarqawi well, including former cellmates, voiced doubts about his ability to be an insurgent leader, or the leader of anything.” (Emphasis ours.)
Here.