Lost opportunities

Next year will be the 40th anniversary of the first Moon landing.
I remember how excited I was, watching television reports of that historic event. It was one of humanity's great achievements.
Little did I realize that we would then squander the next four decades. As a matter of fact, right now NASA's plans don't call for a return to the Moon until 2020, which means the 50th anniversary will come and go before man sets foot on the Moon again. What a shameful shortsightedness.
Yeah, I know there are people who argue that we should solve our problems down here first. That's so stupid it barely deserves a response. By that standard we would never do anything, because there will always be problems here on Earth. Meanwhile we will have spent a trillion dollars on a pointless war in Iraq. For a trillion bucks I'm pretty sure we could have a whole Moon base, let alone a simple visit, dammit.