Moral Hazard

Moral Hazard | National Review Online:
"Over and over we’re told that if Assad gets away with using chemical weapons it will encourage others to use their WMDs.
This is often said alongside another damning assertion: Assad is only the third dictator to use chemical weapons since they were banned.
The other two are Hitler and Saddam Hussein. The Hitler claim, as Fred discussed,  is a bit problematic.
But what about Hussein?
He definitely used them.
But did his use of chemical weapons embolden or encourage others to use them? 
Hussein used chemical weapons in 1987 and 1988. 
No one else used them again until Assad did more than 20 years later. 
Is there any evidence that Hussein’s precedent encouraged Assad?
If there is, I haven’t seen it. "