Being able to procure the materials for war is not a waste. A waste is allowing individuals like you to be able to become a capsuleer, let alone board a ship. As especially my second link demonstrates, mining is part of the cluster’s culture and it created some of the finest and most powerful people in the wider community.
http://wiki.eve-inspiracy.com/index.php?title=Catiz_Tash-Murkon
Even our beloved current Empress, Empress Catiz I, started out her conquest of the cluster as a mining venture. People who speak ill of miners have no idea what they are talking about.