I agree, there was TONS of support available, this was a decision to not go in for political reasons. From what I’ve been hearing it was because there were Al Qaeda ambush teams waiting for the rescue response to cause another Blackhawk down situation and POTUS probably decided it wasn’t worth the risk to his re-election hopes. That makes the most sense and explains Panetta’s moronic “we don’t go in unless we have more intel” statement.
I think Panetta was the one who put that out there. I don't think I buy that. A Delta Force team and 100 Recon Marines with air support from an AC-130 or an Apache helo could deal with that I believe. Do we ask for guaranteed outcomes now before going to defend 41 Americans who volunteered to serve in harm's way?