Alien first contacts and public money

In this strange article there seem to be even stranger talks about an odd subject: “a 10-year process of formal, funded public education, scientific research, educational curricula development and implementation, strategic planning, community activity, and public outreach concerning our terrestrial society’s full cultural, political, social, legal, and governmental communication and public interest diplomacy with advanced, ethical Off-Planet cultures now visiting Earth.”

Although I am all for most of the expenditures, I think there is an arrogance here only real scientists understand. On the rare occasion when I wind up in a discussion with someone about aliens and our first contactusuallyaly try and make the point that it ludicrous for us to think we could possibly defend ourselves from such an invasion. The technology required to get here would be soo far ahead of ours it would make amy of the Roman victories over the Jews look like a close contest. So to me the idea that the US may start a war with any visitors without the rest of our consent seems unlikely. Would you wipe out mosqitos because one bit you? I think any visitors would be able to see there are many different cultures and not all would react the same way, but that's all obvious. The only problem is I like the idea of more science education (even if the hook is aliens) and public science outreach. Do the ends justify the means in this case? How much could we benifit from a broad public discussion of our cultures from the context of extra-terrestials? I would suppose a lot since from there vantage point all differences would be minute. I'd like the public to hear that, expecially the book-huggers. So in this case I think the ends would justify the means.