US RULED OUT ATTACK ON IRANIAN SILKWORMS
  U.S. military planners ruled out
  Iran's Silkworm missiles as a target in the retaliatory attack
  mounted on Monday for fear of being drawn more deeply into the
  Iran-Iraq war, defense and Middle East experts said.
      U.S. naval forces destroyed an offshore oil platform and
  raided another in what the administration called a "measured and
  appropriate response" to an Iranian Silkworm missile attack last
  Friday on a U.S.-flagged tanker in Kuwaiti waters.
      Private analysts generally agreed that going after the rig
  rather than an onshore economic or military target such as
  Silkworm launch sites reflected a careful bid by Washington to
  limit the political, military and diplomatic fallout both at
  home and in the Gulf.
      "It simply demonstrated the United States will take military
  action when they (Iran) take military action," Norman Polmar, a
  defense analyst and author, said.
      He said hitting the platforms had spared Iran the
  embarrassment of casualties on its own soil, possibly avoiding
  an escalating spiral of attack and counterattack.
      In addition, it minimized the risk to U.S. forces and the
  potential embarrassment of any losses, including aircraft that
  could have been shot down had they taken part in an attack.
      Anthony Cordesman, author of a new book on the Iran-Iraq
  war, said the United States apparently chose a limited target
  to keep alive the possibility that U.N. Secretary General
  Javier Perez de Cuellar might still persuade Iran to accept a
  Security Council call for a ceasefire.
      "We want the U.N. peace initiative to work if there's any
  chance at all," he said, adding that the action made it clear
  tougher steps would follow if Iran to attack Gulf shipping.
  
     In targeting an oil rig -- albeit one said by the Pentagon
  to have been turned into a military command post -- Washington
  also sent a message that it might be willing to attack Iran's
  economic lifeline. Pentagon officials said the platform had
  been used as a base for Iranian raids against shipping in the
  lower Gulf.
      "We have chosen a military target, but we also have shown
  Iran that we are willing to interfere with its oil-exporting
  capabilities," Cordesman said.
      He predicted the United States would respond to any future
  major Iranian challenges by hitting Iran's naval base at Bandar
  Abbas on the Straits of Hormuz, followed by mining the
  approaches to Iran's oil export terminal on Kharg Island.
      Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger said on Monday the
  United States did not seek further confrontation with Iran, "but
  we will be prepared to meet any escalation of military action
  by Iran with stronger countermeasures." 
  

