Space waste?

I've just heard rumours that President Bush will be announcing long term plans for a lunar station and a manned mission to Mars next week. I'm internally divided on this. It seems crazy spending huge amounts of resources on space exploration when there is such huge poverty and environmental degragation here on Earth. But on the other hand I'm a lifelong space junkie and Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars comes very near Lord of the Rings in my personal chart of all-time favourite reads. I couldn't help the butterflies of excitement stir in my chest when I heard this rumour about Bush's forthcoming announcement, so unexpected after the Columbia shuttle disaster. However one worrying aspect was a reference in the articles to "closer cooperation between NASA and the Pentagon" - if Bush is going to use science and exploration as a cover for the militarisation of space then this is very ominous.