Obama’s Shadow Wars

Missile-wielding drones and elite Special Forces units are the new face of American power, and the White House is increasingly relying on them to fight terror in the farthest corners of the globe.

MARCH/APRIL 2012

A Yemeni soldier stands guard in old Sanaa. The United States and Britain temporarily closed their embassies in the Yemeni capital on Jan. 3, 2010, after threats from AQAP and the failed bombing of a U.S. airliner on Dec. 25, 2009, by a terrorist trained in Yemen.

PATRICK BAZ/AFP/Getty Images