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"erin burnett outfront' starts right now. selling a war, john kerry makes his case for american-led strike against syria. a teacher rapes a student who then takes her own life. and that teacher got 30 days in jail. the judge tonight admits he could have made a mistake. what's next? and the man convicted of holding three women captive for more than a decade now dead. was this justice? let's go outfront. good evening. i'm erin burnett. closer to war. the senate foreign relations committee this afternoon narrowly approved an authorization to use force against syria. president obama sent the secretaries of state and defense to capitol hill to make his case for war. yesterday as you know they faced some very skeptical senators like rand paul. today the audience was even tougher. >> if our credibility is on the line now as is argued, what about if assad retaliates? >> why was there no call for military response four months ago when the president's red line was crossed? >> this is not about getting into syria's civil war. this is about enforcing the principle that people shouldn't be allowed to gas their citizens with impugnity. if we don't vote to do this assad will interpret he is free to do this any day he wants to. >> our chief national security correspondent who was watching it today. jim, you know there was really tough questioning today. there was some progress for the white house in the senate. very different story in the house. far from a sure thing for the president at this point. >> victory for the president today but not as convincing. the vote ten to seven in the senate. only three republicans voted for it. one of them senator john mccain. two democrats voted against. it is a signal it could be a tougher sell which you got a sense of today in the questioning of hagel, kerry and dempsey. you heard from lawmakers who want the administration to do more and should be about changing the equation on the ground. you heard from those who want to do less, sending strict limits on the scope and duration of military action. this is a congress that is very much divided on authorizing the use of force. >> as jim indicated for very different reasons people don't want to use it. some people don't want war at all and some think the president should go much further than he is planning to go. it all comes down to syria crossing president obama's so-called red line. >> i didn't set a red line. the world set a red line. the world set a red line when governments representing 98% of the world's population said the use of chemical weapons are aborant and passed a treaty forbidding the use even when countries are engaged in war. >> that is quite a change of tone, though, from this. >> a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. that would change my calculus. >> we have made clear as the president did i believe from this podium that the use or proliferation of chemical weapons is a red line as far as he is concerned. >> the president's use of the term red line was deliberate and based on u.s. policy. >> deliberate. is today bad messaging. out front a republican from tennessee and formernateo supreme ally commander. great to have you here with me on set. when you hear this he is trying to say it is not my red line. he has made a clear and consistent point that it is his red line and this is something he is passionate about and he believes in. why is he doing this now and saying it is not mine? >> because i think if the united states is going to lead, this is the time to lead. and what the president is doing is leading. everyone signed this chemical war fare convention. it has been in law since 1925. and this is a chance for the united states and the world community to show that we meant the piece of paper when we signed it. and that's what this is about, u.s. leadership. it is not about the strike. this is about bringing the united states and the world together to make a statement. this is not going to be permitted in the 21st century. >> doesn't the general have a point? the president said this is his red line but syria is one of just a few nations in the world that has not agreed to a treaty preventing the use of chemical weapons. isn't he right to say this is the world's red line? >> this was a treaty, yes. it goes back decades. and there has been agreement on that. but i would disagree. i think that the president has shown a lack of leadership in this situation. it is one of those things where he has been inconsistent in his approach. and when i talk to the men and women in my district who are military retires, who are active duty there at fort campbell, they, i think are getting mixed messages. a president must be able to clearly assess a situation, define a mission, give that strategy and say this is what the exit is going to be. and this president has not done that. >> that is a fair point. >> i don't think it is fair. >> explain to me what is the exit? john kerry said no boots on the ground. >> it is three, four, five days. it is a package. we did this against saddam hussein in 1998 when he wouldn't allow the u.n. inspectors in. this is nothing new. we have done this. when president clinton did it he did it. there wasn't a big debate about it. it was over. here the point is not the strikes. we are not going to intervene in that civil war at this point. there is no political opposition to really reinforce. we are miles away from that. >> you think he can keep this put in a box. >> i think there are two different issues. i think that if we are -- first of all, we have to draw a line against the use of chemical weapons. that may weaken the assad regime. it may not. we are also providing some aid to the rebels because if we are going to move towards a political resolution there has to be enough balance between the two sides to encourage assad to come to the table and negotiate. right now he doesn't have to. all he has to do is wait it out and wait for the opposition to fall apart. >> with the rebels we know they have been infiltrated by al qaeda. we know there are many -- >> 10% or 15% -- >> they are not necessarily friendly to us. we also have a situation where this president, you hand him the ball in foreign policy and he seems to fumble it whether it is the draw down in iraq or afghanistan with the surge and libya or egypt. people are saying we seem to have a problem with understanding what is to be the goal and how we are to approach these. i think the president didn't want the responsibility on his shoulders so therefore in what he decided to do -- >> put it on congress. john mccain said a no vote from congress would damage the office of the presidency and it would be catastrophic. you have john boehner saying vote yes. >> i am a lean no. >> do the arguments sway you that this is about the office of presidency of the united states. >> it is about the office of the presidency and about our nation's response and how we go about through that decision making process, how we approach this. what has happened in syria, whether it was assad or the rebels, it is immoral. looking at the u.s. military and this administration, requiring them to do more with less resources. whether it comes from the draw down in iraq or the surge in afghanistan. they're cutting the money and the resources to the military and putting more on them. the pivot to asia. and what is taking place. >> i think we have to be careful about partisanship and morality when we are talking about deciding on u.s. foreign policy. i want to take this out of the partisan mode. president bush bears the responsibility for unleashing the democracy genie in the middle east. he and condoleeza rice pushed this. you can't put it back in. it has been used. so we need to look at where we are right now. got a very important principle at stake here. and i think that if you go back and look at it through a partisan lens you see consistency in the republican party going back 90 years to the republican party's refusal to ratify the league of nations, the efforts after world war ii of isolationism in the republican party. it is a consistent theme the country has struggled against. we are the leader of the world. this world community was built by the united states after world war ii. it is in our interest to keep it going. and part of that is not allowing the use of chemical weapons. >> thanks very much to both of you. we appreciate your time tonight. still to come the story we have been following, a teacher raping a 14-year-old student. the teacher only got 30 days in jail. tonight that could be about to change. a student came home from the first day of school and took his own life. his friends say it is after years of bullying. could school officials have done more? and dennis rodman in north korea to meet with his friend, kim jong-un. and george zimmerman stopped by police again. 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