I agree with you, but this is something that we can't argue to the "sheeple".
I'm sorry they won't get it until China is standing on the Moon or on asteroids and launching well aimed rocks down on us and then the their bleating will be heard, "Oh why, Ohh how did this happen, how is it now that the greatest nation on this Earth is now going to be destroyed in the next 15 min and the Government can't do anything about it.
If they think China isn't seeing space as the ultimate weapon’s platform and that any UN declaration is going to stop them they are so far gone there is no hope for them.
Our industry will not go there because there is no profit in it, yet, except for LEO. China on the other hand doesn’t need profit for it to make sense. China sees space as their ultimate defense plan, and we are just plain stupid if we don't see that. Nobody inspects China's rockets for weapons or asks them what their projects are for weapons platforms, why ask anyway, they'd just lie.
U.S. industry couldn't develop space based weapons on their own if they tried, some leftist freak would scream bloody murder, and again there is no profit in it.
If we cede the high ground to other nations then it's our own stupid fault when we are looking down the barrel of a gun. Imagine if Japan had developed the ICBM before us and what the world could have looked like.
The "sheeple" do not see this as defense spending and that's probably the mistake of splitting NASA off from the military long ago.
There is a difference between supporting space exploration for military value and " searching for evidence of life" on Mars or somewhere else.
Nobody has suggested that a trip to the moon would be anything but an exploration mission. So with that, I don`t support it.
In my earlier post, I suggested that private business should have invested in "space exploration", and believing if it had, we would be much more advanced in that area as a world, not necessarily as a nation. What business is it for our government to be looking for lifeforms out in the great beyond?
Also, the tax money that was spent on space exploration so far could have been better used in other areas ( which included the military, if it meant a missle defence system, so be it ).
But for military purposes, I would support the government in such an avenue 100%. I believe NASA should be converted to take a military role, and not be some science research juggernaut for the "there must be life out there somewhere" crowd.. It is stupid and a waste of money.