ABOARD THE USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT -- America needs to attack Iraq after Afghanistan and topple Saddam Hussein, senior U.S. senators visiting this aircraft carrier said on Wednesday.
"Next up Baghdad!" Senator John McCain yelled out while visiting the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier's flight bridge to watch warplanes launch toward Afghanistan.
McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona, arrived on the carrier in the northern Arabian Sea with eight other senators on an anti-terrorism campaign fact-finding tour.
The delegation, which included Democrat Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, visited the ship for about three hours, meeting senior naval officers and crew members before taking to a stage in the carrier's giant hangar deck to address thousands of sailors.
Lieberman said that for many Americans, the war against terrorism will not be over until hard proof surfaces that Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington, had been killed or captured.
"I think Iraq is going to have to be considered" as a target after Afghanistan," McCain told The Associated Press on his way to boarding his plane bound for the Gulf state of Oman.
The United States first needed to give Iraq every opportunity to comply with U.N. resolutions and allow weapons inspectors into the country to ensure that it has disposed of weapons of mass destruction, he said. He did not elaborate on how much longer America should wait for Iraqi compliance.
The final decision for action was for U.S. President George W. Bush to make, said McCain, but "I really believe that the Iraqis present a clear and present danger to the security of the United States of America."
Fellow Republican senator, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, said U.S. efforts had to continue focusing on pockets of Taliban and al-Qaida bin Laden's terror network resistance inside Afghanistan, where America first launched attacks Oct. 7.
U.S. military strikes in Iraq aimed at toppling Saddam's regime should take place, but only with the backing of coalition partners, said Hagel.
"I think it would be wrong, very shortsighted and very dangerous for the United States to unilaterally move on Iraq, we need our coalition partners if we are to be successful, just as we have been successful ... in Afghanistan," said Hagel.
"Eventually he (Saddam) is going to have to go. I think he will always be a threat to the region and the world. The U.S should be involved in that, along with all our coalition partners."
Another Republican senator, Fred Thompson of Tennessee, said the terrorism cannot be destroyed without dealing with Iraq, plus other states that may harbor terrorists such as the African nation of Somalia.
Saddam "has shown the probability that he will soon have nuclear capability; he has shown the ability to use biological weapons against his own people ... (and) he has ties to al-Qaida and whether or not he is directly connected with the World Trade Center (attacks), he has those ties, he will be supportive, and we have to address it," Thompson said.
Mohamed Atta, believed to be one of the hijackers of a plane that slammed into the World Trade Center, is said to have met in April with an Iraqi intelligence agent in the Czech capital Prague.
Thompson said America currently had "limited" options at its disposal, except to participate in the toppling of Saddam.
Hawks in Washington have been pressing for the U.S. military to take on Iraq and finish off Saddam, who was left in power after the Gulf War. Other administration officials, however, have argued to keep the focus on the anti-terror war against bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
Advocates of targeting Iraq say Saddam is trying to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons programs that U.N. inspectors tried to dismantle after the 1991 Gulf War. Inspectors have not been allowed into Iraq since departing ahead of U.S. airstrikes in late 1998.
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