The Iraq war has cost the United States:

• 2,932 American lives (as of 02006-12-11)
• The blood of a possible 655,000 Iraqi lives on our hands (as of ~02006-10)
• 46,880 American non-mortal casualties (as of 02006-12-02)
• US $350 billion dollars, as of today, with a total cost estimate of US $1 trillion, $2 trillion or more when all is completely wracked and ruined. These dollars have gone to the likes of Halliburton and its subsidiaries, flying straight out of the pockets of US citizens and into the coffers of these giant multinationals who are beholden to no nation and simply go where the money is the easiest. There is no economy boost here. This is money stolen from all US citizens, while US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan don't even have appropriate body armor, properly protective humvees or paid-for care when they return maimed and broken.
• All the future potential each of those lives and all of those dollars would have contributed to the US and the world through time and growth.
• The standing of every American in the world today. Both individually and collectively, we are diminished simply for being American, and must work harder to rise above the branding. It wasn't like this before the Bush administration took us all for a ride. It wasn't like this before we let fear rule the day instead of putting a stop to the atrocities being committed in our name by robber barons intent on pillaging the world under the guise of patriotism and security.

What does all this have to do with this post's title, you ask? Where does the moon in the sky come in?

Right here: NASA is planning to bring a permanent moon base online in 2024, with a roughly projected budget of somewhere around US $230 billion, according to Congress' Government Accountability Office. The moon base will provide a crucial staging ground for the eventual exploration and colonization of Mars.

Imagine each of those lives lost in Iraq, working instead for the pursuit of science and the building of an infrastructure to further humanity as a whole rather than enrich only the pockets of a few corporate thieves and liars.

Imagine putting our incredible resources and energies into the kind of thing only humans can do: expanding the boundaries of knowledge and creating a larger home for ourselves when this planet is beginning to seem all too small.

Imagine being a part of the generation of humanity that finally opens the doorway to the stars. Imagine being in the graduating class of homo sapiens, moving from troubled youth to responsible adult.

It's rocket science, yes... but rocket science we already know works, because we've done it before. It's not a pipe dream or a science fictional alternate reality. It's here. It's ours, right now.

And, not counting all the death, destruction and other intangibles we could have saved, our new moonbase could already be a reality for just a bare quarter of the cost of the Iraq War.