Nothing could demonstrate America’s dedication to a just peace then to breathe life into the shell of an almost lifeless world. Even the dullest most ignorant peasant on the most blighted benighted town on planet Earth should see this. Of course why should we Americans have all the fun as even the European Union or a consortium of the “Asian Tiger” nations could build quite a nice Mission to Mars or any other object in the near solar system with off the shelf technology and components.

The world needs a positive vision of a humanity that is growing and expanding. The current reality of a world of limited resources becoming ever more industrialized over more and more of the globe under some world government will make terrorism grow like wildfire. Terrorists are able to challenge modern civilization itself with the threat of death and destruction simply because human beings be they Americans, Arabs, Asians or anyone else hate being confined and chained like prisoners to a world that has become too small for them. We live in a world today where the dictator half a world away poses the same threat to your life, children, and property that a homicidal next door neighbor posed to us in ages past. Even the wealthiest world citizens are running out of tax havens that protect their money from both the predatory regulator/ tax collector and the terrorists too.

Expansion into the limitless frontier of space will alleviate the tensions caused when too many people fight over those goods necessary to life. Make no mistake economic growth and the prosperity on earth will stagnate if not fed from colonies “on the outside”. The Earth’s environment will also suffer even if we embrace “renewable technologies” with dictatorial zeal because the space need to live is not a renewable resource and of course there are national parks and wild life preserves to consider too.

The conquest of space will also breed a new generation of heroes who unlike the heroes of most of human history will not half to gain fame by killing there fellow men. This new breed of hero will gain his fame by settling the harsh environment of Mars and with invention and perseverance as his two great allies carve out a life for himself and his kin. Today’s politicians may be threatened by the idea men living free without their “guiding hand”, and these same men providing hints to there fellows back home on how to live free. However if any politician desires to hinder the opening of a new colony on Mars because their cherished purgatives stand threatened by men leading a better life they need only consider the alternative. The alternative to the same politician is to deal with terrorists who having given up the idea in childhood of creating a world they could be proud of will turn to destroying the world that either oppresses them or stands in the way of their evil ambitions.

Offering to create a frontier in space beginning with a well-funded mission to Mars is the very least those men and women in the halls of power here on earth can do. Consider the opening of new frontiers in space a sort of insurance policy against planet earth becoming a vile penal colony for the ruled and the ruler alike. With these facts of human nature in mind Congress and the Senate should have voted the funds for a Mars mission years ago. I guess those men who’s souls are guided by reason and a love of freedom shall half to explain over and over again to those in power that you can either expand or you can die. A middle ground for humanity simply does not exist.