Mining wasn't meant to be the biggest business in the world of Bitcoin. It will never be the type of "work" that can feed the masses, just like in the real world, only a few people are miners. But that doesn't make the idea of donating your computing/networking/whatever resources to some crowdsourcing mechanism in exchange for micro-payment invalid. Here is a couple of services that your computer could provide to others in an automated, peer-to-peer fashion for a couple of 'toshis:

• Provide internet proxying/tunneling/anonymity.
• Perform scientific calculations, simulations, SETI@home-like challenges.
• Compile source code.
• Render images for graphics artists.
• Brute-force crack crypto keys.
• Perform DDOS attacks.
• Send spam.

I guess there might be some real economic potential for the last couple of items on the list.
Has anyone attempted to write some kind of service-for-bitcoin software?

Why should the military only act in its own interest? It should act in the interest of the people it serves and who pay for it.