The war criminal career path

AP's obituary of Zarqawi included this odd description:

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi rose from the life of a street thug in Jordan to become the symbol of "holy war" in Iraq, masterminding the bloodiest suicide bombings of the insurgency, beheading hostages and helping push Iraq into a spiral of sectarian violence with vicious attacks against Shiites.

Taranto asks if the AP really thinks that going from street thug to mass murderer is a rise. It seems self-evident that they do, but where would the aspiring young war criminal go from there? Saddam Hussein "rose" all the way to genocidal dictator of a brutal police state. Is that the pinnacle? Yasser Arafat led a few decades of the ongoing effort to eliminate the Jewish race and was, not coincidentally, awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. Does that trump Saddam?

How would one get started? Does Berkeley offer a degree in Terrorist Studies?

I'm really having a hard time getting a handle on this whole war criminal career path. I guess my own career will not include writing obits for the AP.