But the Pentagon is a planning machine, so the Defense Department last year came up with a military analysis of a ground option should the president request it.

CNN: Sarin in Syria: What's the United States' next move?

Cern, the organisation which runs the LHC, has for some time been planning to shut down the machine in late 2011 for up to one year.

BBC: No extra time for US particle lab

Several departments emblematic of old-style central planning, such as coal and machine-building, have been subsumed under a new "super-ministry, " the State Economic and Trade Commission.

CNN: A New, Slimmer Government