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To do this right, I would say the activation of at least 50,000 more reservists would be required. Perhaps more. You're talking a huge reliance on airpower and air mobility. The biggest chunk of pilots and support crews for MAC (and even combat fighters) is reservists.

And if they take in more than a couple divisions (which they should), that number could be as high as 100,000 reservists.

The best public guesstimate I've seen is an Oct. 1 Congressional Budget Office letter. They developed two planning assumptions -- Heavy Ground and Heavy Air. The Heavy Air scenario estimates 2 2/3 divisions (2 1/3 Army, 1/3 Marines); 16 air wings (10 Air Force, 5 Navy & 1 Marines); and 5 carrier battle groups, 1 surface action group, and 1 amphib ready group. A total of 253,000 troops in theater (202K active, 51K reserves) -- 93K Army, 63K Navy, 60K Air Force, 25K Marines, 12K Special Ops. Plus the Brits are going to furnish a brigade, a carrier battle group, and 2 RAF combat squadrons -- 21K troops. Personally, that sounds like overkill to me.

What many Americans don't realize is that much of this force is already in theater, including Iraq. We've got a brigade in Kuwait, and a Marine brigade afloat. We've got Army engineers building airfields in northern Iraq to take C-141 & C-130 transports and we've Special Ops people operating in northern and western Iraq with the Turks and Jordanians respectively. We've got enough equipment for a 2nd Army brigade in Kuwait, a second Marine MEB afloat, and a 3rd Army brigade enroute. There are 2 carrier battle groups in theater with their air wings to be joined by 2 others in early December. There are 2 Air Force wings in theater. CENTCOM is moving its operational headquarters to Qatar next week. And the Brits have planned "exercises" that will "coincidentally", bring a carrier battle group, the Desert Rats and SAS/SBS in theater. Yesterday, the Coalition conducted 38 combat sorties against the Iraqis.

There are rumors of Iraqi generals ready to switch sides in northern Iraq at the first shot.

I've read estimates that the force necessary could be in theater a couple weeks after Presidential authorization. command decision.