We can give you fifteen grand.
But, ah, you killed my wife and child and brother and nephew. You destroyed my home and my brother's home.
Yes, our strikes are very precise. We hit our targets. We're sorry.
Precise? But I'm not ISIS. I was a pencil-pusher for a Chinese multinational telecom company, before you tried to kill me and my family.
Yes. Apparently we didn't choose targets very well that day. Oops! And we are sorry. But our strikes really were quite precise.
Yes, I saw the video on YouTube. I watched it in my hospital bed.
Not sure what you're talking about. There is no video of that on YouTube.
There was. I watched it. It was my house and my brother's house blowing up.
There is nothing in the historical log for that day. Sorry.
Can you at least give me a letter acknowledging that I'm innocent, that I'm not ISIS, so that I might one day return home and everyone won't assume I'm ISIS? Surviving an attack for being ISIS can be pretty dangerous if you won't publicly acknowledge that I'm not, in fact, ISIS.
Oh, I don't know. We'll have to make some calls. Have a nice day!
~~~
For an audio supplement, the Times' The Daily podcast did two episodes about the person at the center of this article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/podcasts/the-daily/airstrikes-isis-iraq-civilians.html?smid=pl-share