[quote=Allan from Fallbrook] His Interstate Highway program was one of the largest military/defense program in US history. It contemplated an all-out war with the USSR and the need to move men and materiel quickly throughout the US.[/quote]

That’s why you need big and powerful enemy – it forces you to develop interstate highway, TCP/IP and race to the moon.

You don’t need to go to Mars in order to fight drugs and terror, you just need low radiation body scanners.