Quote Originally Posted by Vic Bout View Post
Two things I learned when dealing with both Afghani's and Iraqi's (mostly military types):
1) Never believe the first report
2) Combat math is skewed (i.e. "Well, Chief, we were on patrol in town last night and were ambushed by 25 ali-baba. We returned fire but they all escaped"....en realidad for my daily SITREP to higher we divide everything by 10 and come up two guys shooting at our IA patrol from a speeding vehicle
I should have known better. I actualy teach this in my tactical Arabic classes:

01 (Wahid) = None or maybe even 1, if they feel especially honest
02 (Ithnayn) = One, Maybe
03 (Thalatha) = One, for sure
10 (Ashura) = Two
15 = Three
100 = Ten
1000 = 25
Too much = 26

It is Very Bad = SVBIED or any assessment of the enemy
It is Very Much Bad = 3 or more Jihadis, or any unacceptable interruption of kabab, shisha or tea breaks
It is Too Much Bad = Any Muj position they have to attack
It is Too Very Much Bad = Kababs cannot be found, like, anywhere!

So by this initial report I guess I can add "We have killed the #1 Al Qaeda" to mean = We REALLY don't want to have to find this guy ... he is already dead, see!?