What is really behind the "race" to the Moon?

I wondered how long this would take before I started hearing this kind of grumbling. My first exposure to interest in Helium 3 was a story posted November ov last year by Ron Huber which speculated on the interest the Chinese where showing in Luna "exploration". It seemed that their interest centered mostly on the vast quantities of H3 on our companion. (for those of you not in the know, Helium 3 is center-most in research into fusion power generation. Helium-3 is considered as a long-term, stable, safe, clean and cheap material for human beings to get nuclear energy through controllable nuclear fusion experiments. Of course "cheap" is the operative word here with speculation raising the worth of a ton to several billion dollars.) Earth mining really isn't an option. All told there might be 15 tons of helium-3 on Earth, while on the Moon, the total amount of Helium-3 can reach one to five million tons. So you can see that renewed interest in returning to the Moon by the USA instead of being motivated by the lofty goals of expanding our horizons, but more making sure we get our fair share of the moon pie. So it goes without saying I am not surprised when people start speculating more loudly that China and Russia may have an "agenda" for gaining a toehold on the Moon.

To see what I mean, read this article by Casey Kazan of the Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff