most of the rest is dealt with in the post above.  

First, I don't count lip service as actually embracing a goal.  It reminds me a bit like this one seen from Law & Order, where a company president promises unlimited cooperation, and then (basically says) "but only if you get a subpena"  Pretty speeches don't pay the bills.

As for your idea of it being a good frame - well, here is where I see a problem.  First, as I said, lip service doesn't mean squat if you aren't willing to back up your words with actions (one of the reasons to not like Arlen Spector).   Second, and I think quite possibly more important, there isn't a whole lot of support for a Mars mission.  And framing the issue like this has a tendancy to put people off of supporting Mars missions (and manned spaceflight in general).  So it doesn't really help the cause of inspecing containers, and it hurts the cause of manned spaceflight.  

I do understand why your trying to find a compeling way of framing it, but I think what we've already found is pretty compeling.  The real issue is the idiot in the white house, who doesn't really care about a great deal of important things.