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Magic 30's gruesome meaning

27 January 2010

HOW smart are the US military’s smart bombs? Can they, for example, count?

The question is prompted by the observation back in August 2008 on a blog called “Moon of Alabama” that “, 30 is a magic number”. The writer found it surprising how many reports of people – whether Taliban or civilians – being killed in Afghanistan put the death toll at 30. So what’s going on? Are the missiles and drones counting, then ceasing fire?

Marc Abrahams alerts us to a theory about the magic 30 proposed by Megan Carpentier of Air America. Carpentier documents multiple bloggers’…

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