The U.S. invasion of Haiti would commence not with the blazing of guns but with the quiet ripples of Navy SEALS making their way ashore. Under cover of darkness -- a key ally in the Pentagon's invasion plan -- they would drift apart and stealthily make their way to the country's major airport, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Their mission: to make sure no surprises were in store for the thousands of U.S. combat troops that would follow. "One truck ...

Though the ranks of the Whiz Kids in the Defense Department are proliferating, five stand out for the scope and strength of their influence:Alain C. Enthoven, 31, intense and dark-suited, looks more like a young college professor than a weapons analyst. Yet, as deputy comptroller for systems analysis, this young economist must lay bare the calculations on which many defense decisions are made. After graduating from Stanford with honors in economics, spending two years at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and getting his Ph.D. from ...

It isn't clear whether the United States will ever be able to declare victory in Iraq, the top U.S. commander there said Thursday. "I'm not sure we will ever see anyone declare victory in Iraq, because first off, I'm not sure we'll know for 10 years or five years," Army Gen. Ray Odierno told reporters at the Pentagon. About 123,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq now, and President Obama says all combat forces will be gone by the end of ...

NATO will stay in Afghanistan "for as long as it takes," the military alliance's new leader said in Brussels, Belgium, Monday. "We will support the Afghan people for as long as it takes -- let me repeat that, for as long as it takes," said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former Danish prime minister who became secretary general on August 1. He said success in the country was NATO's top priority, "to help prevent Afghanistan from becoming again the Grand Central ...

A strong Russia is good for the United States, U.S. President Barack Obama said in a speech in Moscow, which he is visiting in an effort to "reset" the countries' relations. Addressing an audience including former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and graduates at a Moscow business school, Obama said Washington wanted to work in partnership with a "strong, peaceful and prosperous Russia." "This belief is rooted in our respect for the Russian people, and a shared history between our nations ...

Russian and U.S. nuclear negotiators have completed a joint statement on the framework for a new arms control agreement to replace the 1991 START I agreement which expires December 5. A U.S. source close to the American side tells CNN that Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev will discuss the joint statement at their Monday meetings in Moscow and are expected to announce and sign it at their joint press conference Monday afternoon. The agreement will set new limits on ...

The number of Obama Administration figures losing power to Dennis Ross is growing longer by the day, but one addition to the list is particularly surprising: General James Jones. Obama picked the 6'4" former Marine to be his National Security Adviser last November after meeting him only a handful of times. And while Obama is happy with his strategic military advice, the President seeks more guidance on the "political and diplomatic" front than he's getting from Jones, two senior ...

Russian and U.S officials are meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Moscow to discuss a replacement pact for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty I, which is expiring in December. "The key thing is that our two countries seem to have decided that we do want to pursue very intensive negotiations between now and December 2009 to try to achieve a new treaty to replace START when it goes out of force December 5," said Rose Gottemoeller, the U.S. assistant secretary of ...

The surgical face mask has become perhaps the most recognizable symbol of the H1N1 pandemic threat, but if the currently circulating flu virus does in fact reach full-fledged pandemic proportions, U.S. health officials say there won't be enough face masks to go around. The Department of Health and Human Services says the nation would need more than 30 billion masks — 27 billion of the simple surgical kind, which can be worn safely for only about two hours ...