Knocking glory
Aerospatiale, the French manufactur- ers of the Exocet missile have place an advertisement in the Economist. They are offended by the 'orchestrated cam- paigns of denigration' to which the Exocet has been subjected. Sonie people have made the tasteless suggestion that Exocets do not always explode. But rest assured of the 112 ships that have been hit by Exocets in the Gulf War, 57 either sank, ran aground, or were towed home for scrapping. In only one case did the missile fail to explode. For some reason, Aerospa- tiale do not tell us how many neutral merchant seamen died as a result of these sales demonstrations; though they do boast that out of respect for the (combatant) seamen who lost their lives in the Falk- lands, they have not joined in public controversy about the effectiveness of the Exocets used by Argentina. The advertise- ment concludes: 'Exocet is and remains the leader in its category . . . that's why it upsets people so much!' Exocet doesn't just upset people. It kills them. In the Gulf war it is being used as part of deliberate policy to kill neutral civilians in the cam- paign to close down Kharg Island. It is how can one put this? — a little upsetting that the manufacturers have taken a full page in the Economist to boast of this fact.
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