LandColt Daily Market Opinion

Here is today's LandColt DMO. If you wish to receive this every day, feel free to send an email to info@LandColtTrading.com and type 'SUBSCRIBE' in the subject line.

Obama’s Troop Decision is Based on Math, not Security
By: Todd M. Schoenberger

The President’s decision to add troops to Afghanistan was originally thought to be for security of U.S. and NATO troops, as well as Afghanistan’s citizens; but after a few punches into my calculator, I realized how the President really came up with the 30,000 figure: Simple mathematics!

What baffled me when I watched the President take another opportunity to show his face—and teleprompter—and patronize the West Point cadets was why the 30,000 figure? Why not grant General McChrystal’s request of 40,000 additional troops? After all, there is greater risk of losing battles if fewer troops are on the battlefield, not to mention loss of life and injury.

But the future officers in attendance that evening in Eisenhower Hall witnessed their Commander-in-Chief make a decision based on politics, and decided to add another degree of risk just so he could promote his precious healthcare reform bill.

You can do the math: Based on the number of uninsured Americans who are projected to receive health coverage if the bill passes will cost the U.S. the same as the cost to send the additional troops and pull them out by the President’s deadline: July 2011.

Of course, the cost for healthcare reform will be even higher when you factor in time after July 2011, and Obama knew he had to establish a deadline to counter any argument about cost discrepancies between his healthcare fantasy act and national security. What the President really did at West Point was tell those cadets that the value of a prostate exam is greater than their security and platoons.