A yes vote of conscience for the world's red line

I am informed by Vietnam, not imprisoned by it. And I am informed by Iraq, not imprisoned by it, either.

The faulty intelligence of the Iraq War was a legacy burned into all of us who present the case for action in Syria to the Congress: It has made us press with extra urgency to know that we are highly confident of what we speak now.

For me and for Chuck Hagel, who voted once before on an intelligence case that turned out not to be true — and regretted it deeply — we would never put any Member of Congress in that same position today, period.

I understand the temptation to remember Vietnam and Iraq and reflexively paint any subsequent possible military action with the same brush.

But to do so ignores what Syria is, and what it isn’t.