Opinion: How Al-Assad poisoned Syria debate  By Nadim Shehadi
special to CNN POSTED: 08:38 AM MDT Aug 26, 2013  (CNN) -  There
may still be doubts whether the Syrian regime has used chemical
weapons against its own civilian population; but there is
however conclusive evidence that it has effectively used the
toxic stuff to poison the minds of western policy makers and
paralyze the debate over intervention.  This is so much so that
it has diverted attention from what is happening on the ground
in and focused it on the red line that the U.S. has drawn itself
behind and seems unable to enforce. n the meantime, the
massacres and destruction continues with impunity and the regime
is triumphantly declaring victory over its opponents and
gleefully celebrating the impotence of the United States.  It
all started in July last year with the Syrian regime itself
throwing the cat among the pigeons by leaking information and
acknowledging the existence of chemical weapons for the first
time.  This was followed by three mes