Everyone with an ear open to Iraq news know about the American air strike against a convoy believed to have been transporting Saddam Hussein and heirs. The general wire report, as carried in major outlets such as the Washington Post, adds an editorial,, subtly but tellingly (emphasis mine):

Defense officials said yesterday that they were investigating whether a strike on a three-vehicle convoy fleeing Iraq near the Syrian border last Wednesday killed top officials in the government of former president Saddam Hussein, perhaps including Hussein or his sons.

The officials said that DNA tests were being carried out on the victims, and the AC-130 gunship strike by Special Operations forces had drawn high-level attention in the Pentagon.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary obliges us with prevailing definitions:

1. A living being sacrificed to some deity, or in the performance of a religious rite; a creature immolated, or made an offering of.

2. A person or thing destroyed or sacrificed in the pursuit of an object, or in gratification of a passion; as, a victim to jealousy, lust, or ambition.

3. A person or living creature destroyed by, or suffering grievous injury from, another, from fortune or from accident; as, the victim of a defaulter; the victim of a railroad accident.

4. Hence, one who is duped, or cheated; a dupe; a gull.

The trouble is, Ba'athists - least of all Saddam Hussein - qualify as any of these illustrations of victimhood.

No surprise: Fox News used an Associated Press report but strictly referred to the objects of forensic interest as "remains" "Iraqis killed."