WITH THE INITIATION of the large-scale air campaign, television is convinced that the war to liberate Iraq has begun in earnest. Until there are fireworks in Baghdad, CNN never quite knows what to do.

But in fact, the most important parts of Operation Iraqi Freedom continue to take place away from the cameras. First, the “target of opportunity” strike paralyzed the Iraqi leadership and may have killed a number of senior henchmen, if not Saddam Hussein or his sons. In the south of Iraq, British and American Marine forces are enjoying extraordinary success securing the oilfields around Basra. As Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in his afternoon briefing session, just 10 of about 1,000 wells in the area have been torched. In the western Iraqi desert, the “H-1” and “H-2” airfields–notorious Scud launching sites–have been seized, denying the Iraqis much opportunity to fire missiles at Israel. In the north, the town of Kirkuk is about to fall, and a Turkish incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan has been stalled. One by one, the nightmare scenarios surrounding the war are evaporating.