If the U.S. takes military action against Iraq, it will be a long process, U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback said Wednesday.

But once Saddam Hussein is overthrown, Iraq will grow and prosper and be “a strong beacon of liberty, of democracy, of human rights, of pluralism and of religious freedom in that region of the world,” the Kansas senator said.

Brownback made those remarks about Iraq during a telephone press conference with members of the Kansas media.

President Bush made a case Monday that the world can no longer ignore actions of the Iraqi dictator, Brownback said.

“I’m hopeful the Senate is going to move through this week and pass a resolution providing the president with the authority to use military action, if necessary, against Saddam Hussein to remove him from power,” Brownback said.

Brownback said he was frustrated that France and some other European countries are reluctant to join the U.S. and other countries to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

“The problem with Saddam Hussein is that the problem doesn’t get better with time. It’s like cancer. It just gets worse with time if you don’t deal with it,” he said. “I think this is an extended operation and one that we should be able to do over a period of time.”

The U.S. does have resources within Iraq that will make the operation successful, he said.

“Saddam does not control the north and he has sporadic control in the south,” Brownback said. “So I think we’re going to be able to operate in Iraq, initially, with a consortium of nations.”

Brownback said there are a number of people operating inside of Iraq who will help to overthrow Saddam.

“This is a war of liberation and that will make it easier as well, but it will be a difficult operation,” he said.

Earlier Wednesday, Brownback hosted a press conference featuring Iraqis whose family members had been persecuted, tortured or killed by Saddam Hussein.

“One even stated that people in southern Iraq are standing on the roof on a regular basis, looking for the Americans to come and liberate them from Saddam Hussein,” Brownback said.

One of those Iraqis was a cardiologist now living in Houston who has been an outspoken opponent of Saddam Hussein. Of the 14 family members the cardiologist left behind in Iraq, 13 have been tortured and killed, Brownback said.

Brownback said the cardiologist was recently called on the phone in Houston and forced to listen to his final relative, who is 94 years old, being tortured.

“There are a lot of victims of Saddam Hussein. And most of them are his own people,” Brownback said.

Once liberated, Iraq can become a strong democracy because it has ability to reconstruct itself, having 10 percent of the world’s oil reserves, he said.

Brownback said the U.S. has not done enough to push democracy in the Islamic regions of the world.

“I think our fear has been that this is a region that generally is heavy in oil supply that we don’t want to upset the current regimes in the region,” he said. “That is not acceptable. We need to stand for human rights, democracy, the right to vote and free association everywhere, including the Islamic regions of the world.”