Why can't NASA bring our closest allies (Japan, Israel, England) into a real multi-national space agency and get us to the moon again before 2008? If the ChiComs put a man on the moon before we do, they'll annex it.
It the ENERGY! It turns out that what little "atmosphere" the moon has is full of this crap that can be used to make energy, and TONS of it. The best estimates of how long the world has of oil production by people who've looked into it (
www.dieoff.org), and realistically speaking the world's got about 30, maybe 40, 50 tops, years of oil left.
We'd better get to the moon first!!!