Shadid at the Times

"We are not told how Karim Hassan came to acquire this ‘vision’ of American soldiers as blond giants with good blood. Was it based on hearsay? Who had furnished him with this description of an army that now included many blacks, Hispanics, Asians and women? Or was this villager in remote Halaichiya a history buff – as Anthony Shadid claims – who relied for his ‘vision’ on Arab historians of the Crusades? What follows is more strange, passing strange."