Isn't That Convenient?

In a 2007 interview, the Pentagon's ex-chief of high-value targeting at the start of the Iraq invasion, Marc Garlasco, said that "the magic number was 30" when it came to a thumbs up estimating how many dead could be expected in a planned attack without a hassle.

Anything much over would require the bother of getting explicit approval from Rumsfeld or Bush himself. As long as within bounds, the strike could be given the a-ok by commanders on the ground.

So as an upper limit, thirty seemed an acceptable count, given some wiggle room. Too few to matter politically or to garner much attention from the media beyond a brief blurb or two, without the higher-ups having to deal with any public relations backwash.

We and our international buds must have gotten really, really good since then at not having to bother for the big bosses' blessing, keeping the dead to around batches of thirty at a time, always precisely getting largely just the bad someones.

Sometimes slipping in an "up to" or an "at least" when reporting works effectively to avoid garnering any untoward attention, so long as thirty is the point of reference. And so long as it is clearly accounted also that it is the "militants" or "insurgents" who are left dead.

Just last week you will remember how Yemeni forces targeted and killed a bunch of Al-Quaeda guys over there. Seeing how that attack was supported and backed by the U.S. and company, no surprise really the death toll. One more list item to finish off the 2009 XXX Success docket.

Invariably thirty, and always mostly the bad guys popped off. That's just plain ol' God damn impressiveness there, I tell ya what. Read on and be amazed...

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Adnkronos, 12/07/2009 - Up to 30 suspected militants were killed in a NATO airstrike on a Taliban hideout in eastern Afghanistan...

SF Chronicle, 12/04/2009 - Air strikes in two areas of the Mohmand border region killed 30 suspected militants...

Xinhua, 11/04/2009 - The military said that the troops have killed 30 more militants during the last 24 hours...

Xinhua, 08/31/2009 - At least 30 bodies of suspected Taliban fighters were recovered in northwest Pakistan’s insurgency-hit Swat valley...

Calgary Times, 07/04/2009 - As many as 30 Taliban insurgents might have been killed when troops called in air strikes...

Khaleej Times, 06/24/2009 - Thirty Taliban militants were killed in clashes with NATO and Afghan forces in separate incidents in southern Afghanistan...

Straits Times, 06/15/2009 - Security officials in the region said that about 30 militants were killed in Mohmand agency...

Monsters and Critics, 05/28/2009 - ...the Afghan Defence Ministry said that its troops, backed by international forces, killed 30 suspected militants in neighbouring Khost...

Monsters and Critics, 05/14/2009 - At least 30 Taliban fighters were killed Thursday when government artillery fire destroyed their hideout in north-west Pakistan...

Reuters, 04/01/2009 - U.S. and Afghan forces have killed 30 Taliban fighters, including a local commander, in an operation in Afghanistan’s southern province of Helmand...

IRNA, 02/17/2009 - Suspected U.S. drone fired missiles on a training camp of Taliban militants in a Pakistani tribal region on Monday, killing around 30 people...