Congressman Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) and Rep. David Bonior (D-Mich.) say they oppose nuclear war and the production and use of chemical weapons, and support the disarmament of Iraq. But McDermott says they must be a way to accomplish reasonable goals without the unprecedented step of a preemptive strike by the United States.

"I think disarmament can be achieved without going to war and without house-to-house combat," the Seattle congressman told a news conference at his Capitol office.

McDermott and Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., said they will leave for Iraq on Wednesday as part of a delegation organized by Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Interfaith Network of Concern for the People of Iraq, a unit of the Church Council of Greater Seattle.

McDermott and Bonior are the only members of Congress scheduled to go on the five-day trip, which includes an initial stop in Jordan before a 3 1/2-day stay in Iraq.

For McDermott, the trip marks a return to a country he first visited in 1991, a few months after the Persian Gulf War. He said he and Bonior want to talk to Iraqi citizens.

"You have to talk to people," McDermott said. "We ought to be talking to people" in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.

The trip by the two liberal Democrats comes as Congress considers President Bush's request to use force if necessary to eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and remove Hussein from power. Votes in the House and Senate are expected as soon as next week.

McDermott, 65, expects to land in Baghdad sometime Thursday and return in time to vote on the Iraq issue.

He criticized the Bush administration for pushing the war effort, saying he was not convinced the current leadership in Iraq posed an immediate danger to the West.

"I don't think there's any evidence there's a real threat to us," he said.

The seven-term lawmaker acknowledged that his position was in a distinct minority in Congress, but he said many of his colleagues are genuinely conflicted about what to do.

While they privately have doubts, lawmakers of both parties "want to be with the president, and they feel the American people have been convinced there's some threat to us," McDermott said.

Even as momentum to invade Iraq increases in Congress and polls show a majority of Americans in favor of war, McDermott said he remains unconvinced.

"There are a lot of us who think the American people are getting only one point of view," McDermott said. "We need to give people a chance to know what their alternatives are."

McDermott and Bonior said they want the administration to exhaust all diplomatic measures and allow United Nations weapons inspectors to go to Iraq before the discussion turns to military action.

"Why do we have to vote to give (Bush) carte blanche before we even know what will happen" with other efforts? McDermott said.

Last week, McDermott was among about 19 House Democrats who participated in a news conference opposing military action in Iraq. He said Tuesday that as many as 60 members of Congress oppose military action, although he conceded a resolution authorizing an invasion is likely to pass overwhelmingly.

Meanwhile Tuesday, Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., was among a bipartisan group of lawmakers who attended a briefing on Iraq at the White House. Larsen could not be reached for comment late Tuesday.

'We Are Children Of Peace'

McDermott's trip is being underwritten by the Church Council of Seattle, and when in Iraq, he is expected to link up briefly with an interfaith group of six people -- four from Seattle, who are taking medicine to Iraq.

That group will also be carrying a videotape of 100 Seattle school children who gathered at a Wallingford District Church to sing a song written last year. It begins: "We are the children of peace, we are the children of the world"

One member of the group making medicine to Iraq, Bert Sacks, told KOMO 4 News: "We'll take it with us and I think there's a good chance we can get that on Iraqi television."

Alex Jonlin, a nine-year member of the children's group, said: "I think people are going to be watching their TV in Baghdad and thinking these kids want peace, they really don't want war."

Ten-year-old Isabel Khalili added: "I was thinking I was making a difference to the world, we were all making a difference because we were singing and sending it to the people in Iraq."

Because most in Iraq may not understand English sung by a chorus of school children, the song was sung in Arabic as well.