The Killing Ground

In the first hours of battle it almost seemed that the war might be won with air power alone. But eventually soldiers and marines must finish the job on the ground. This time, the land war will be as distinctive as the earlier air war. It will mark the first test of the U.S. Army's post-Vietnam doctrine of "AirLand Battle"--a modern blitzkrieg characterized by rapid, violent armored thrusts--against Saddam Hussein's 545,000 troops in Kuwait and southern Iraq. Below, one scenario drawn from "Newsweek's' correspondents, military insiders and analysts:

1. U.S. F-111s bomb bridges

With alliance forces massed on the Saudi border, bridge bombings cut off Iraqi supply and retreat lines across the Tigris and Euphrates river delta, trapping Saddam's elite Republican Guards.

2. U.S. tanks go in

Alliance forces avoid a frontal attack on the Soviet-style layered defenses in southern Kuwait. Instead, the largely Arab forces arrayed on the Saudi side of the border launch a holding attack. Meanwhile the American VII and perhaps XVIII Corps make an end run west of the fortifications, slicing northward to swing behind the Iraqi forces in Kuwait--a classic envelopment maneuver.

3. Destroying the guard