To Mars!

I can only begin to think how would non-American public react to President Bush's initiative. As far as I'm concerned, there is nothing wrong with the idea of space exploration being raised on new level. The only problem is who and how is going to foot the bill. I guess that those who aren't going to foot the bill – non-Americans – are going to be among Bush's initiative's harshest critics, simply because the rising anti-Americanism in the world is going to be affect views about space exploration in general. Most people in the world today (with exception of Russian and Chinese) view space exploration as something strictly American and, therefore, something wrong. Rationalisations of that attitude ("robotic probes are cheaper", "they should spend money on AIDS and rain forests instead" etc.) are going to come later.