Pizza order shows the world is on the brink

News.com.au

15 hours ago

A surge in pizza deliveries to The Pentagon has become a surprisingly accurate predictor of war, with this week's 'Pizza Index' once again lighting up just moments before news broke of Israel's major attack on Iran.
Internet sleuths on X reported a sudden spike in deliveries near the US defence headquarters, suggesting that hungry military leadership were hunkering down to monitor unfolding activities.
The popular account, ' Pentagon Pizza Report,' led the theory, claiming to offer 'hot intel' and painstakingly documenting the dramatic spike in traffic at local pizzerias.
'As of 6:59pm ET nearly all pizza establishments nearby the Pentagon have experienced a HUGE surge in activity,' one post said, noting this was about an hour before Iranian state television reported explosions in Tehran.
The account then posted the Google Maps activity of four Pentagon-adjacent pizza establishments – We, The Pizza, District Pizza Palace, Domino's and Extreme Pizza – which showed that all reported a spike in orders around this time.
'With about an hour left before close, the second closest Dominos to the Pentagon (about an eight min drive) is experiencing EXTREMELY high levels of traffic compared to a normal Thursday at about 11:00pm ET,' the account said in one post.
Social media users took to the comments to add to the speculation.
'It's going to be all-nighter, eh,' said one user.
'They should really open a secret Dominos inside the building,' someone else suggested.
'I feel like this really is telling us there's a panic at these places,' a third pointed out.
'Pizza tracker is never wrong,' declared a fourth.
While it's far from scientific, the pizza delivery theory has become a reliable barometer for global tensions over the years.
When the world is on the brink, it seems, the Pentagon orders pizza.
And this week, as Israel's strikes on Iran made headlines, the humble pizza delivery once again signalled that something big was unfolding behind closed doors.
The phenomenon is nothing new, and taps into a longstanding Washington tradition that dates back to the Cold War.
Soviet intelligence reportedly monitored pizza deliveries as a clue to American military activity. They coined it 'Pizzint', short for pizza intelligence.
Another similar pattern was observed before US military interventions in Panama in 1989, when pizza orders reportedly doubled.
Then in 1990, a surge in orders delivered to CIA buildings was noted by a Dominos franchisee in Washington. The next day, Iraq invaded Kuwait.
During the 1998 impeachment hearings of Bill Clinton, yet another spike was seen.
As former CNN Pentagon correspondent Wolf Blitzer once joked in 1990, 'The bottom line for journalists: always keep an eye on the pizzas'.