WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn left for his first official visit to Iraq last week convinced the United States is right to be fighting there and curious about claims that more troops are needed.

Coburn, R-Muskogee, told Oklahoma reporters, "Everybody abhors war, but this is something we dare not lose."

Coburn, who has adopted the term "Islamo-fascism" popular with President Bush and some conservatives to describe what they see as a threat posed to the United States by some radical religious groups, said the war in Iraq is a war on Islamo-fascism.

"And we have to fight this war," he said. "If we don't fight this war the way we're fighting it now, we're going to be fighting it closer and closer to home."

Referring to recent speeches by the president about the war on terrorism and the war on Iraq, Coburn said Bush is "just now starting to put this in perspective."

The senator left for Iraq on Thursday with Republican Sens. David Vitter of Louisiana and Richard Burr of North Carolina. He is scheduled to return to the United States on Monday. Coburn is the last member of the Oklahoma congressional to go to Iraq.