I guess that was not how I interpreted things...I thought that Dharma was trying to change the equation (through several different ways, parts of which were on the island) to save humanity in some way, but that Dharma failed...they couldn't find any way to change the factors of the equation...so they had to resort to radical action, which is the virus. The virus was a last resort attept to save humanity by killing a third of them. As far as what the intent of the Others are, I'm still not sure what I think yet, but I do believe that the Others are not working towards the same ends as Dharma is/was...I keep coming back to Kelvin (who was a Dharma employee) calling them the "Hostiles" which implies the Others and Dharma are not on the best terms...