Here is the way it works
Situation happens//Situation is analyzed//Mission statement is developed//Courses of Action are selected and analyzed//Advantages and disadvantages are briefed to decision maker with recommended COA//Decision maker, (Read POTUS when employing US Armed Forces)//POTUS then says Execute COA as briefed, or different COA, or do nothing for awhile, or go to Las Vegas. This decision is then communicated by SECDEF thru the Joint Staff directly to the Combatant Commander AFRICOM. Obama who said "Do everything you can" is not an order that the military can legally carry out. These people are dangerous armatures and should be held accountable. I hope one of these Flag Officers comes forward with the truth.
By the way the mission analysis I described above sounds complicated and lengthy but our well trained Special Operations Forces can do it in minutes while enroute to the objective if they have to.
Great post/analysis/information, mosaicwolf. BTTT!
Now I was only on active duty in NavSpecWar for 5 years, but it was imprinted deeply upon my brain that ONLY the POTUS can give cross-border permission. Probably a million living ex-military officers know this like they know 2+2=4. So this Benghazi fiasco is Obama’s baby 100% and there is no way for him to wiggle out.
The system is designed to ENSURE that when a crisis is happening, (and a missing ambassador with a consulate under attack in Libya is “Crisis Level Infinity”), and military assets are already charging in to the rescue, the president must be in the loop to grant the the cross-border authorization. Nobody else can do this. This one formality must be followed, “just put your intitials here, Mr. President, for history,” so to speak. Boiler plate, but it must be done.
The POTUS has to tell the Sec. State and JCS, “Yes, do it, execute the rescue, cross the borders.” Then it WILL happen, without delay, since the military is already on the way, flying in from all directions toward Benghazi.
(Can you imagine Reagan or either Bush saying “No. Cross border permission not granted. Stop the rescue. Stand down.”)
But if POTUS says at 5pm DC time, “No military action, no cross border,” and then he becomes “unavailable,” then his last standing order stands until he changes it. So if he went to bed, for example, nobody could change his standing orders.
I imagine that a lot of extreme military, CIA and State Dept. craziness was going down while Obama was sleeping. Aircraft must be told proceed, or return to base, or they fall from the sky. I imagine many HEATED arguments around the globe on phone, text and email, subject, “Well wake the damn president up!” Followed by, “I can’t! You MUST stand down the mission!”
Just imagine dozens of inbound planes, jets and helos. Ships moving at full speed into position to be “lilypads” for long-range over-water helo refueling. Airborne refueling tankers all head to the area. It’s a complicated ballet. The Pentagon is wide awake, the military is on full alert. The rescue is in process, from the first minutes after the alarm.
Everybody in all the planes and involved HQs knows how many minutes/miles to the Libyan border, Benghazi, and their “bingo fuel” moment, when they must turn around or run dry and crash. Ships can “loiter,” but planes fall from the sky.
So you can imagine why General Ham of Africom was (if true) relieved for refusing to stand down. He probably KNEW Obama was “unavailable,” and was screaming over the phone, “Well, wake him up, dammit!!”
Planes and jets and helicopters and ships and commando teams are zooming all around the central Med, keying in on Benghazi——
And in that environment, OBAMA WAS ASLEEP AND UNREACHABLE!!!!!
Resting up for Las Vegas! With a MISSING AMBASSADOR, in Al-Queadatown!
No wonder General Ham didn’t want to stop the rescue. He knew the derelict captain was not on the bridge of the ship of state.