sounds like these gunships were in Sigonella and their mission dating back to March had been to support the anti-Qadaffi militia
There is no indication they were capable or authorized to intervene in Libya without the consent of the Libyan govt (or NATO if they are NATO assets), against potential Libyan nationals rioting against one of our consulates (still a plausible explanation in the early hours of the fray/fog of war) to rescue a US Ambassador and CIA contract personnel
It would be great to know that Jack Ryan could get them re-tasked and over there in an hour but there can more bureaucracy than that in making up plan as you go along
Could strong leadership by a real POTUS like George Bush or Ronald Reagan have overcome this with some top level phone calls? Possibly yes.
But a pussy-whipped lead-from-behind axxhole like obama doing something presidential to save people who weren't supposed to get caught doing what they were doing? Nahhhh.
Yes, it IS doable. In fact, the equivalent has been done. All it takes is an Ollie North with the will to say this will not stand.
What you say in Post 69 is certainly plausible, but if it were the case why not just say so? It’s not like it would be the admission of classified information.
OUR consulate was under attack by militarily armed Libyans. This was either sanctioned by the Libyan government, in which case it was an act of war and asking them permission would be an act of treason, aiding instead of fighting the enemy. Or it was against their wishes, yet demonstrably NOT under their control in which case their permission was irrelevant. Anarchies can't give real permission. And if it was anarchy that was certainly not the fault of Libyans. Gadaffi certainly hadn't run an anarchy. Overt attacks like this would never have happened under his control. Any anarchy would be mainly the fault of one man, the Grand Pres-Bo, unsupported by any other legal authority. PBO [Praised Be Obama]