You're conflating goals and means. Drug dealing is inherently criminal (because of how laws are written), but the military isn't inherently killing. Much of what the military spends time on is figuring out how not to fight.

Amateurs speak of tactics, professionals speak of logistics.

That DoD research has civilian applications makes it no less intended for enforcing violent hegemony and killing people. Imagine if half of that went toward genuine civilian research, rather than research with a primary military application that may be be applicable to civilian domains.