The killing of Anwar al-Awlaki is the latest prize of President Obama’s strategy of a smaller, quieter war on terror. Eli Lake and John Barry on the mix of “black” and “white” special forces—and the debate over al Qaeda’s current strength.
President Obama has put an indelible stamp on the war on terror in the last six months, scaling back the big wars his predecessor launched in Iraq and Afghanistan while widening a covert campaign in many countries that is waged with precision air strikes and operatives that leave a much smaller military footprint.
The tactics Obama has embraced and deployed were developed in the final years of George W. Bush’s presidency but have been refined and expanded with success under this administration with strong backing from the likes of CIA Director David Petraeus and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
And while the drones are the most outward signs of the covert campaigns that rage from the Horn of Africa to Pakistan, it is the nearly invisible troops on the ground—both U.S and allied special forces—who are gathering the intelligence, making eyes-on confirmation, and directing the strikes with remarkable precision.
