Seriously?
As a mate of mine in the RAF used to say..."Tis better to ask forgiveness than permission"
One of my old bosses called mayday when he was in a UN mission in Timor...they were being shelled by the next door neighbours and he raised an Aussie P3 to pass the message along to.
I remember the story well, I don't remember him saying that he was agonizing over whether he should or should not be calling attention to their plight...
BTW second what Plazbot said ;-)