Overview

• Local pizzerias around the Pentagon saw a sharp increase in orders on June 12, flagged by Google busyness data.
• The uptick in pizza deliveries anticipated Israeli air strikes on Tehran and other Iranian targets later that night.
• Tensions had already escalated between Israel and Iran after declarations by Trump and a partial evacuation of US embassy personnel.
• The Pentagon Pizza Index traces back to Cold War intelligence observations and was noted before the US invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
• Enthusiasts monitor the index via Google’s restaurant busyness tool and accounts like @PenPizzaReport, though experts caution that correlation is not causation.