What you are describing are "problems with manned spaceflight to Mars", but not "problems with manned spaceflight to Mars.. that would be solved by political involvement, and could only be solved with political involvement."
Actually, the political involvement makes the engineering much more difficult. That's why the shuttle turned out so badly. But the taxpayers are where the money comes from for projects that don't make any sense from an economic standpoint, so you're pretty much stuck with the politics.
