I'm not saying that we need to rely on the military to construct and oversee space colonies or the like. I believe scientific research in space is very important, as is colonization. But from a strategic point of view space is the ultimate high ground, and will likely be a battlefield for the next millennia. The United Nation’s Outer Space Treaty declaring that no country will own ‘land’ on other planets will be repealed eventually. Weapons will be (if they haven’t already been) introduced into space, eventually en masse. Wherever the colonists go the military will eventually follow, and wars will inevitably erupt. But the country that develops the capability to deny space access to another country with a space program in the early 2000s will be in a much better position then one that is held under the specter of having its satellites and space-based infrastructure wiped out if it decides to do anything foolish.

I believe China represents the country most capable of achieving a broad reaching space (scientific and military) program that is not forced to rely on American, Russian, or European launches. And since we are friends with most of Europe, and relatively close to the Russians, the Chinese pose the greatest threat. Their space program clearly has military implications. They are in the process of trying to modernize and update the antiquated technology and tactics employed by the People’s Liberation Army/Navy/Air Force. Part of that goal is to study recent conflicts like Operation Iraqi Freedom, where space-based infrastructure was used extensively for troop and weapon guidance and intelligence gathering.

So there is a reason for the military to go into space and maybe even take the lead: to establish a formidable space based infrastructure to defend interests in space and on the ground, while countering moves from other countries that have the same desires in mind.

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"Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine."
"Something unknown is doing we don't know what."
-Sir Arthur Eddington