In the Pentagon press conference yesterday both Rumsfeld and Chief of Staff Myers claim ignorance of the facts, claiming that they had not yet received definitive reports on the raid that took place more than a week ago. Presumably Task Force 20 is so secretive that it is using carrier pigeons to pass information up the chain of command. Satellite communications are just too insecure.

Muger Addib is a center of sheep smuggling and the convoy that was struck, a pickup, a transport truck and a water tanker, seemed more consistent with transporting sheep across the desert than for transporting senior members of Hussein’s regime. The attack on the convoy injured Syrian border guards and the strike on the village killed a young Iraqi woman and her infant daughter. Her husband survived wounds from the air attack. One charred AK47 was found in the wreckage of the convoy. Photos leaking out demonstrated that the destroyed tanker was not carrying fuel. It was intact with holes in the tank from airborne ordinance, The tank did not explode and was barely damaged except for the holes blown in it.

Officials aren’t talking, except to hint that the attack on the convoy was based on intelligence that Saddam was riding in the pickup and that the purpose of the strike was to assassinate him. There is no hint of a reason for attacking the village by what is apparently a super secret Special Forces death squad. Rumsfeld refused to answer any questions about Task Force 20’s makeup, mission or even its existence at the Tuesday press conference.

Doctrines of pre-emptive war, strikes on isolated Iraqi villages in an occupied country killing only civilians – a woman and her child – seem more likely to have their origin in 1940 Berlin than in Washington 63 years later. How can we claim the moral high ground when we cloak assassination attempts in euphemistic phrases like “decapitation strikes”? The fact is that we can’t. We call the death of a young Iraqi mother and her baby “collateral damage”. To her husband it was murder in cold blood – hardy designed to free his family from oppression.

Is this “Americanism”? Is this “Anti-Terrorism”? They say that to make an omelet one must first break eggs. The taste of this omelet has proven to be lethal, for hundreds of Iraqis and scores of American soldiers. We need to find a chef who believes in what America used to stand for and can tell the difference between eggs and babies.