You Can Tell When War Is Breaking Out Because the Pentagon's Pizza Orders Spike Drastically

"Who says pie charts aren't useful?"

Pizza Premonition

A flurry of activity at pizza delivery outlets near the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, is a surprisingly accurate predictor of war, as hungry military leadership hunkers down to monitor unfolding military activities.

As painstakingly documented by X account Pentagon Pizza Report, a "busier than usual" indicator on the Google Maps profile of the Domino's in Arlington has been associated with major acts of war taking place around the world.

Most recently, the franchise received an onslaught of orders just before closing last night — almost perfectly coinciding with Israel's devastating attack on Iran.

Even long before the advent of live, GPS-based customer tracking on Google Maps, famished Pentagon workers have long given away that there's something much darker going on by ordering copious numbers of pies.

"The Pentagon Pizza Index has been a surprisingly reliable predictor of seismic global events — from coups to wars — since the 1980s," The Economist's head of data journalism Alex Selby-Boothroyd wrote in a LinkedIn post.

"On the night of August 1st 1990, for example, the CIA ordered 21 pizzas in a single night just before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait (a new record)," he added. "Who says pie charts aren't useful?"

War Pies

And it's not just Domino's. As Euronews reported last week, the Papa John's close to the Pentagon has also been found to be "busier than usual" during the days leading up to Iran launching drones into Israeli territory in April 2024.

A separate event chronicled by Pentagon Pizza Report also predicted military activity on June 1, followed just hours later by an escalation between Israel and Iran.

Of course, making any definitive statements about any correlation would be foolish. But it's an intriguing sign that even the most secretive parts of the US government can easily show their cards without meaning to.

"Bottom line for journalists," Wolf Blitzer told CNN in 1990. "Always monitor the pizzas."

More on pizza: Chef Admits His Smash Hit Pizza Was Invented by ChatGPT