Why Do U.S. Airstrikes in Afghanistan Keep Killing Exactly 30 People?

[Better Believe It]

Why Do Airstrikes in Afghanistan Keep Killing Exactly 30 People?
By Megan Carpentier, Air America
December 11, 2009.

Pentagon policy from the Rumsfeld days on acceptable kill rates still seems to be the guiding logic for what field commanders are telling the news media.

On Monday, the anonymous blogger Security Crank noticed something interesting: all the U.S. and NATO airstrikes in Afghanistan seemingly kill exactly 30 people every time. How can that be?

Security Crank documented no less than 12 occasions in which news reports, relying on field commanders' estimates, noted that exactly 30 suspected Taliban were killed in airstrikes and, occasionally, artillery attacks. He said:

But the much more important point remains: how could we possibly have any idea how the war is going, here or anywhere else, when the bad guys seem only to die in groups of 30? The sheer ubiquity of that number in fatality and casualty counts is astounding, to the point where I don’t even pay attention to a story anymore when they use that magic number 30. It is an indicator either of ignorance or deliberate spin… but no matter the case, whenever you see the number 30 used in reference to the Taliban, you should probably close the tab and move onto something else, because you just won’t get a good sense of what happened there.

So, why is it always 30? Do thirty casualties seem like enough to justify a military attack, or few enough to not attract too much attention to an incident?

Another blogger, Joshua Foust of the Central Asia blog Registan, seemingly stumbled upon the answer. In a tweet, he noted:

In 2003, an air strike killing 30 civilians could be launched w/o issues. 31 dead civilians and Rummy had to approve.

Read the full article at:

http://www.alternet.org/world/144509/why_do_airstrikes_in_afghanistan_keep_killing_exactly_30_people

[lovuian]

1. That is CODe and they use the code in the papers

I've seen it too

[MNDemNY]

2. Precision strikes.

We could use the 40 kill bombs, but we did not.We used the 30s.

[kenny blankenship]

3. 30 dead is a small party gone wrong, 40 is a massacre.

[gratuitous]

4. Because it's the Terrorist Way

If you ever see 30 people in a group, they're terrorists! 29 or 31, they're okay (try not to count if someone unrelated is passing by or if someone went to the bathroom), but 30? Call in the air strike. Home of the brave, land of the free, baby!