One might deduce that their presence has the desired effect of ensuring that the Iraqi forces did not consider an expeditions further south.
Only if they were incapacitated by hysterical laughter.
IIRC the AOC wanted to send F4s, but was overriden for political reasons as we had, of course, sold F3s to the Saudis, and needed to show confidence in them. The story was his response was along the lines of, "you
seriously want to send
that into a combat zone?"