The US-British assault against Iraq may not be the quick hit, two-day wonder many expected it to be. Certainly not if it is based on the strategy devised for last month's aborted attack on President Saddam Hussein's regime.
After that attack was called off - with US and British bombers already in the air - in the belief that the Iraqis has agreed to the UN demands for full and free access for the weapons inspectors, the Washington Post published what the military game plan had been. At that time, the thinking was that President Saddam was going to get more than a slap on the wrist.
The Americans and British had, apparently, rejected the idea of "strike-pause-strike", opting instead for a continuous series of raids, lasting "at least" several days. The strikes would be targeted on chemical and biological warfare stockpiles. The Pentagon offered the prediction, "as a medium-case scenario", that they could kill 10,000 Iraqis, many of them civilians.
Yesterday, Washington defence sources confirmed that the current attack was based on the maximum, or large scale, option examined in November. "It's not cursory," said one senior officer.
In the days ahead, as about 200 US warplanes now in the region will be joined by the 60 aircraft from a supplemental air expeditionary force, pilots will hit a wide variety of locations where the Iraqis allegedly manufacture and store parts for his programmes to develop missiles and chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
The evidence emerging from Britain would seem to support the view that the present attacks may last several days and be substantial. In London yesterday, the Joint Chief of the Defence Staff, Gen Sir Charles Guthrie, said the action against Baghdad was the largest air campaign since the 1991 Gulf War.
The general said the aim of the action was:
To degrade President Saddam's capability to build and use weapons of mass destruction; and
To diminish the military threat he posed to his neighbours.
The aim of the attacks was not to kill President Saddam, he insisted.
By using precision weapons the allies were making "every effort to minimise civilian casualties". Sir Charles said the first wave of attacks had been launched from American ships to maximise surprise and operational effectiveness.
The focus of the campaign was the final elements of Iraq's once huge and now much diminished programme of chemical and biological weapons. While 40,000 chemical weapons and 700 tonnes of chemical materials had been destroyed by the UN inspectors, 610 tonnes of ingredients for making the nerve gas VX are still missing.
Analysts say that Iraq has no nuclear capability left, but that its chemical and biological programmes, including anthrax, VX nerve gas, mustard gas, botulinum toxin, sarin nerve agent, Agent 15 nerve gas and cyanide, were difficult to eradicate.
Another focus of the campaign, according to London and Washington, is to knock out Iraq's remaining capability to target such chemical or biological weapons against any of Iraq's neighbours. That means finding and bombing the last handful of Scud missiles.
Additional reporting: Los Angeles Times, Guardian, Reuters, AFP and PA