Word: exocet
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...have been drafted by France, to be put before the United Nations Security Council. To help placate Iran, the resolution also condemns Iraqi bombing of civilian targets in Iran. Yet the Iranians, who are angry at France for selling Iraq five Super Etendard fighter-bombers as well as Exocet air-to-surface missiles, were not impressed. Tehran still insists that the price of peace with Iraq is the ouster of the man who started the war, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein...
Concerns about the delivery of the jets stem from an all-too-plausible scenario. Iraq already possesses up to 40 French Exocet air-to-surface missiles, the weapon that won headlines last year when Argentina used it successfully to sink two British ships in the Falklands war. Once the Super Etendards, which can fly up to 733 m.p.h. at low altitudes and have a radius of 530 miles without refueling, are armed with the Exocets, the Iraqis will be better able to threaten Iran's oil exports. Though the missiles cannot knock out the installations at Kharg island, which...
Iraq has already received from France 20 Exocet air-to-surface missiles, the same weapon that the Argentines used to such deadly effect against the British in the Falklands war last year. Once the Super Etendards are equipped with the Exocets, the Iraqis would have a weapons system capable of hitting and blocking Iranian oil facilities that still ship an estimated 2.2 million bbl. per day of crude...
...this leads to the other side of the sword. We must not misuse this enormous power against nations like Nicaragua. On a pragmatic level, even vastly superior naval forces are vulnerable to some kinds of stealthy attack, like the Exocet missiles used against Britain in the Falklands conflict. But on a much broader, moralistic plane, it would be simply wrong to abuse our strength, even if there were a reason to use it at all. Reminding unfriendly regimes of American power is fully within the legitimate parameters laid down in the Constitution, and recognized by international law. Attacking nearly defenseless...
...region has been rife with reports that France, which has already provided more than $4 billion worth of arms to Iraq, may soon supply it with Super Etendard jet fighters equipped with the kind of air-to-surface Exocet missiles that Argentina used against Britain in last year's Falklands war. A likely target for Saddam Hussein: Iran's major oil outlet at Kharg island in the Persian Gulf. The very idea provoked a quick Iranian counterthreat. If France or any other nation intervened in the war by supplying such weapons, or if Iraq seriously damaged the facilities...