A top NASA administrator was asked in the early 1980s to estimate how long it would take to go back to the Moon if it were determined that we should, in a Return to the Moon crash program. NASA replied that such a program would take at least 14 years. The influential nature of space products and services mandates serious programs to develop them. Defense only protects us so that we might build stronger, lasting foundations in nonforceful and grassroots ways, such as communications. Hollywood is a big power in the world, moreso than many western governments.
Interdependence is the strongest force.
We need to approach defense more wholistically. Space development is a means to substantially strengthen the Free World's stability and security in nonmilitary, socioeconomic evolutionary ways, such as communications and other space resources to benefit economies and operations on Earth. The longer we wait to start a substantial program of projects, the later we will benefit, and the more we will lose. Now is as good a time as any to commit ourselves to these goals in the interests of the United States of America, for the Free World, and for all of mankind. It's not a question of whether we can afford it.