The Civilian Casualties of America’s Air Wars

<p>Four years ago, Azmat Khan, an investigative reporter for The Times Magazine, told us<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/podcasts/the-daily/airstrikes-isis-iraq-civilians.html"> the story of Basim Razzo</a>, whose entire family was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq. His story helped reveal how American air wars were resulting in a staggering number of civilian deaths.</p><p>Analyzing thousands of U.S. military reports and investigating in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, Azmat was able to gain a better understanding of why this was happening.</p><p>Azmat Khan, an investigative reporter for The Times Magazine.</p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/signup/NTTD?smid=pc-thedaily">Sign up here</a> to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/the-daily?module=inline">subscribe to our newsletter</a>. </p><p>Background reading: </p><ul><li>The promise was a war waged by all-seeing drones and precision bombs. But Pentagon documents show<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/12/18/us/airstrikes-pentagon-records-civilian-deaths.html"> flawed intelligence, faulty targeting, years of civilian deaths</a> — and scant accountability.</li><li>A trove of internal documents, combined with extensive reporting across the Middle East, reveals<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/19/magazine/victims-airstrikes-middle-east-civilians.html"> the tragic, disastrous failures</a> of the U.S. military’s long-distance approach to warfare.</li></ul><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit </p><p><a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily">nytimes.com/thedaily</a></p><p>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.</p>