I just read an article from the International Herald Tribune (which I actually read
on commondreams.org), which states that the first flag on Mars, should not be the American Flag, but the "flag of Planet Earth"

I would like to respond to this with a sobering fact:
There is no "flag of Planet Earth." I'm not saying there shouldn't be, but
the fact is, there isn't.

Sure, there is the United Nations flag, but this hardly represents a
unified planet. Yes, we could easily design a "flag of Planet Earth," but
the point is, we need to unify Earth *before* it makes sense to have an
Earth symbol, such as the "flag of Planet Earth".

The U.S. President or any countries' leader cannot effectively, or even
reasonably, announce a world space effort because the institutions and
structures necessary to carry such an effort out do not exist. The
cooperative system used on ISS, although it forged great advances in
international cooperation, still stands out as a sad example of the thorns
that still exist in the garden of transnationalism.

We need to work towards a truly global structure in order to effectively
deal with global issues, such as the environment, labor standards, and
human rights--and to attempt global efforts, such as erradicating poverty,
erradicating major world diseases, and, most notably, interplanetary
travel. We need a global constitution, global bill of rights, global
security forces, and global tax codes for a global economy.

The daily news shows that we are a long way from the day when these
necessities are a likely reality. But we must keep them in sight. Without them,
we are essentially a global anarchy. Local warlords keep peace in various regions,
but there is no overall structure.

I'm afraid the reality of humans on Mars is also a long ways off, but this
goal too is one we should keep going after. A logical next step is an
international mission to the Moon. But where is the International Space
Agency?

-rob

P.S. In fact, there is a guy in Nebraska (or somewhere in the mid-west)
that started up an "International Space Agency," but such an endeavour
unfortunately can't easily be started by some guy in Nebraska. We need
leaders from around the world to commit to such a goal.