Damn! Good on him for defending U.S. Citizens! Thats our president!
Damn! Good on him for defending U.S. Citizens! Thats our president!
Apples and oranges
The two are not even close to being the same.
In Baghdad there were US ground forces, infantry type forces readily available in the immediate area that could DRIVE to the embassy and get there within an hour or 2 max and once there could be easily maintained/sustained for hours, days even weeks if required
In Ben Ghazi which was NOT the US Embassy (that was in Tripoli) there were no ground forces of any kind any where close the closest were THOUSANDS of miles away.
The closest offensive force of any kind were F-16's in Aviono Italy 1300 miles away, F-16's that were NOT on any kind of alert status, not fueled, not armed not nothing .
From IDing aircraft to getting them fueled and armed, assuming they run up Ok that is to be wheels up, you would be lucky if you got that done within 2 hours.
To make that 1300 miles hop you would need to max out on external fuel tanks which means probably nothing but internal 20MM cannon and to have any kind of loiter time you would have to stay out of the throttle no afterburners for sure , so 400 knots maybe 450 so you are talking basically 3 hours to get there and have loiter time still only measured in minutes before you would have to back track 100's of miles to NAS Sigonella which is NOT a "fighter base, so anything remotely resembling "hot pit refueling" is not in the cards
So at least 5 hours from "GO" Go at Aviono that is , NOT "GO" at the Pentagon you MIGHT get a minimally armed F-16 overhead for MAYBE 20 minutes
In those few minutes you are overhead, what are you really going to do ??
They would have had no comms with anyone on the ground, and at 4 o r 5 thousand feet beyond the range of small arms fire at 4 or 5 hundred knots it all looks the same, no way to tell friend from foe even if both side were/are wearing distinctive uniforms, which they were NOT.
Not apple and orange not even two fruits