20110423
reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pro-defense U.S. senators on Sunday said the United States should raise military pressure on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to leave, and one said NATO should end the crisis quickly with an attack aimed at Gaddafi and his inner circle in Tripoli.

Voicing concern about the violence in Iranian ally Syria, lawmakers urged the White House to show more support for protesters trying to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman went further with a call for arms embargo on Syria and sanctions on Assad and his family.

Senator Lindsey Graham on CNN's "State of the Union," said the Libyan rebels did not have enough momentum or training to end the stalemate with Gaddafi and urged an air campaign directed at Gaddafi and his inner circle.

"My recommendation to NATO and the administration is to cut the head of the snake off, go to Tripoli, start bombing Gaddafi's inner circle, their compounds, their military headquarters in Tripoli," Graham said.

Republican Senator John McCain, who was in the Libyan rebel stronghold Benghazi last week to show support for the rebels, said Gaddafi should be "aware that his life is in danger." But he said previous attempts to target dictators militarily have shown "it's a little harder than you think."

Lieberman said it was "very important that Gaddafi and his family and everyone else near him wakes up every day thinking that it is their last" to avoid a "very costly and destructive stalemate."

But Lieberman stopped short of advocating making a military goal of killing Gaddafi. "NATO has got to start thinking about whether they want to more directly target Gaddafi and his family. That's the surest way of ending the violence against the civilians of Libya," he said.

MORE PRESSURE ON ASSAD

Lieberman also said the United States was "not doing anywhere enough to support the freedom fighters in Syria and to oppose Assad."