And, warning that the United States is "overextended and at risk" due to US troop deployment around the world, ex-US drug czar McCaffrey says the time has come to acknowledge the situation's gravity and call up reservists and National guard divisions.

"While early criticisms of the Pentagon have been overheated, the American public needs to start looking at Iraq as a war -- like all wars -- that we must fight hard to win," he wrote, after highlighting early dramatic US successes in the war.

In an op-ed piece titled, "A Time to Fight," McCaffrey, who led the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division in the 1991 Gulf War, is critical of US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's "rolling start" concept to the attack's launch, saying it "has put us in a temporarily risky position."

Due to the fact that US forces should really be fighting with three armored divisions and an armored cavalry regiment to give rear area security, "a war of maneuver" will now have to be faced in the coming days.

McCaffrey notes the United States would be seeking to destroy five Iraqi armor divisions with just one US armored unit -- the Third Mechanized Infantry supported by "modest armor forces of the First Marine Division and the Apache attack helicopters of the 101st Airborne."

But, he predicts: "We will succeed in this battle because of the bravery and skill of our soldiers and Marines combined with the ferocious lethality of the air power we will bring to bear on the enemy force."

And he said that the 100,000 troops en route to battle "will give the operational commanders the ability to control the pace and tempo of the fight if we sense trouble."

The ensuing destruction of Iraq's 5,500 vehicle strong mobile force will shift the battle's "center of gravity" to the urban area of Baghdad.

The toughest problem as US-led forces face the "determined opposition" of the Republican Guard, will be "the eradication of the thousands of so-called Fedayeen and the al Kut Army."

"The war will not be over until the regime is dead or behind barbed wire. To achieve our purpose we must destroy the SRG and thousands of terrorist fighters."

"If we shrink from using direct and overwhelming violence on the SRG and the Fedayeen, we will risk thousands of casualties in our Army and Marine assault forces and leave in place an unintimidated, even emboldened, terrorist threat that will make our subsequent occupation of the city an unending horror."

With US forces likely to be tied up in Iraq "for the next 12 months at least" and others deployed elsewhere, "It is time to call up at least three US Army National Guard Divisions for 36 months service along with significant Marine, Navy, Coast Guard and Air Force reserve elements," he wrote.

"Calling up these reserve forces will be political and economic recognition of the gravity of the situation we face. We must win this second crucial battle of the war on terrorism that was forced on us by the tragedy of September 11," said McCaffrey.

SPACE.WIRE