By some measures, the United States seems poised to become a peacetime nation once again: President Barack Obama's administration has withdrawn all U.S. troops from Iraq and has begun the drawdown of troops in Afghanistan.

But there's one big problem with the idea that the United States is moving away from being a nation at war. While Obama is bringing the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan to an end, he has dramatically expanded America's covert wars across the globe --favoring surgical strikes by Special Forces teams, such as the one that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, and missile-wielding drones that can deliver death from above.

Obama's not-so-secret reliance on covert action has transformed the nature of warfare. Here's a tour of the hotspots where the United States is waging war from the shadows.

C.E. Lewis/U.S. Air Force via Getty Images

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