WHAT NEXT?
The air assault on Iraq continues, even as troops are being moved toward the front lines. What next? Most experts agree a significant level of blanket bombing on key military and industrial installations and troop emplacements must precede any ground assault. Scenarios of all sorts have been suggested if a ground war begins, but many agree the most likely is:
* A nighttime, three-pronged allied attack--including land, air and sea elements. U.S. Army units, assisted by allied Arab forces, would thrust into Iraq west of the Kuwaiti border.
* Meanwhile, American paratroopers would drop behind Iraqi lines while Marines now aboard U.S. warships in the gulf would launch an amphibious assault near Kuwait city.
* Each of these maneuvers would help support the main, and potentially costly, attack along Iraq’s front lines on the Kuwaiti-Saudi border.
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