For months, the United States has insisted that it has no quarrel with the people of Iraq, but with Saddam Hussein for his cruel dictatorship and his propensity to amass weapons with which to amplify that cruelty.

So it seemed fitting that U.S. forces began their strike on Iraq Wednesday night by sending Saddam a personal message - a surprise "surgical strike" on locations where fresh U.S. intelligence indicated Iraq's top leaders, including perhaps Saddam himself, were gathering.

Actually, "decapitation attack" was the term Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld used Thursday, typical of his no-nonsense, cut-through-the-bleep approach. He described it as "the first (but) not likely the last" attempt to target the Iraqi command, and issued a blunt warning to Iraqi officers and soldiers not to keep "fighting for a doomed regime."

Whether or not the strike hit its intended target, it was an admirable effort. The military planners' misdirection play floored many, including many in the media, who thought they had the U.S. war plan scripted. "Shock and awe"? This was shock without the awe. U.S. forces saw an opportunity, probably based on inside information from sources close to top Iraqi leaders, and were flexible enough to take the opportunity.

Even our British allies, CNN reported, were taken by surprise.

As of Thursday evening, it was still unclear what had happened to Saddam and his top lieutenants, but there were signs the first strike may have scrambled Iraqi leaders' communication with their forces. U.S. experts were studying Saddam's videotaped TV address, which may have been made before the attack, and which may have been made by one of his infamous "doubles."

But what is clear is that Iraq's leaders now know they should expect the unexpected. Saddam, if he's survived, knows there's probably somebody close to him that cannot be trusted.

Most important, the "surgical strike" shows the people of Iraq and the rest of the world that, despite massive military might, the United States felt an obligation even at the last minute to find an alternative that would achieve the goal of removing Saddam but carry minimal risk to Iraqi civilians as well as U.S. forces.

And that's what shouldn't be a surprise about this "surprise" attack.