This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, March 24th, 2016.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Between January and March of 2015, U.S. Special Operations Forces deployed to more than 80 countries, but you probably

didn't hear about most of that because secrecy and warmaking without congressional authority

is how America's wars often occur these days.

Mark Nazzetti is a correspondent for the New York Times and author of The Way of the Knife,

the CIA, the secret army, and a war at the ends of the earth.

We spoke this week.

When we talk about an invisible war,

it seems like the only reason that the public

would not know about it is if it's not reported on.

So how does media coverage of these kinds of events get skewed by the fact that we don't have a physical

presence within on the ground in a country.

Well it's an enormous challenge as a reporter and I think it's also makes it all the more important that the media determinedly report on these

conflicts these secret wars as they play out because in many ways the reason why

they are secret is because the United States goes into

war, you know, in places where there aren't journalists, there aren't NGOs, there are not

a lot of independent reporters reporters and so therefore there's not a lot of

great information. I think that when you look at the history of the post 9-11

period in the United States, it is as the history in Pakistan and Yemen and

Somalia is as important, I argue, as the history in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And these types of, whether you call them invisible wars or shadow wars, are going to be more

...