SOLDIERS ON TRUMP'S SPEECH: Honoring fallen SEAL was to 'score political points,' while others say it was 'sincere'

"The buck stops at the president — the commander-in-chief," Miranda told Business Insider.

"He used Mrs. Owen as a political prop and it is disgusting. I lost my cousin (we grew up and joined the Army together), Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Rada Morales in 2008 and his widow still mourns his loss."

"Trump highlighted the night with acknowledging his legacy. Veterans by and large have felt that we have been used by the DC elite, and that what we have done only matters as much as it signals to the objectives and narratives of that elite," Ober told Business Insider.

"Yesterday was different. To me it was about bringing out the humanity in DC that we thought had died. We usually see D.C. as a cold and hardened machine. The media is at fault for that — we grow up hearing these talking heads on television, and they use a tone that is more machine than human. They craft perception. Yesterday's acknowledgement by Trump was sincere."

"There was a certain tinge of intimacy created between the President and Americans, in that speech ... I feel proud again."

"Honoring Americans has been a tradition for years in this type of format and I do not think this was a ploy to gain ratings," he added.

Cleland, who left the Corps in 2008 due to combat injuries he sustained in Fallujah, now serves as the manager of the military service initiative at the President George W. Bush Center.

The tradition, as he pointed out, is not unique to Trump. Presidents Obama, Bush, and many others have often called out service-members or their families during major speeches.

"Carryn Owens deserves nothing but compassion, regardless of whatever her own politics may be. But Trump inviting her, and wrapping himself in her and her deceased husband turned my stomach," Beck told Business Insider.

"It was a craven political act — an obvious attempt to wave the bloody shirt and beat back questions surrounding the raid itself — and of Trump's buck-passing that morning," he added, mentioning Trump's suggestion that former President Obama was partially at fault for Owens' death.

"It was beyond shameless to pull this stunt, after Trump unleashed his racist attack against the Khans last summer," Beck said. "How anyone could see last night as anything other than a demagogue exploiting the dead and the grieving is beyond me."

"I understand why she would want to be there to have her husband honored. And it’s quite possible that she felt honored and not exploited. Regardless, the clear intent here was to use emotion to drown out legitimate criticisms of the way the new administration approved a military operation that went tragically wrong," Joyner wrote on his blog, Outside the Beltway.

"I found it simply shameful. The off-the-cuff quip (at least, it was not in the prepared remarks) about setting a record with the length of the applause added to the tackiness."

Joyner was referring to Trump's remark after the standing ovation toward Mrs. Owens from members of Congress, in which he told her, "and Ryan is looking down right now, you know that. And he's very happy, because I think he just broke a record."

The Marine made clear that it was important to separate Trump using Owen's widow "as a prop" from any criticism of her actions.

"She did nothing wrong," he said. "Not many people will turn down an invitation to be a special guest of President at an address to Congress."

"Military spouses of slain service members have always been used as props. Trump is no different in that regard. However, Trump does separate himself from other presidents in many ways," the Marine said, listing then-candidate Trump's attack on a Gold Star family, attacking Sen. John McCain over being captured in Vietnam, and his delay so far in presenting a new plan for defeating ISIS.

"Instead of taking the blame for Ryan's death, hours before the speech, he blaimed the loss on his generals. Not once has he acknowledged that his decision — right or wrong — sent Ryan to his death. Something every President has to come to terms with," the Marine said.

"In a vacuum, it was fine and clearly touching for Mrs. Owens which is important, but put into context with the president’s past actions of using vets and members of the military to deflect attention — such as he did in Iowa when instead of participating in the GOP debate he held a 'fundraiser' for vets organizations only to have to be shamed into actually giving the money to vets organizationss — as well as how they’ve approached the response to this mission in particular," Radcliffe told Business Insider.

"It made me a little uncomfortable," he said.

Radcliffe mentioned the administration's attack on Sen. John McCain and others, who have questioned the raid mission. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the criticism was a "disservice to the life of Chief Ryan Owens" that deserved an apology.

Since then, Owens' father has questioned the raid, and he refused to meet with Trump when the SEAL's body was returned to the United States.

"It's something that I think we have lost over the past couple years," Frommling said.

"I remember in 2012 we lost a guy in my platoon on Feb 10 — that day was also around the time Whitney Houston died. Both Lance Cpl. Osbrany Montes De Oca and Whitney Houston were from New Jersey. You didn't hear a peep of him dying, but the flag was at half-mast and the world grieved a drug addict dying in a bathtub," he added, mentioning the controversial decision by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to lower the flag in an honor of the famed singer.

"I think there's a fine line between celebrating someone's life like they did Owens last night and being overly gloating," Frommling said. "I think Trump skirted that line last night but at least someone's sacrifice was recognized."

"We saw in the campaign how he feels about Gold Star families who disagree with him," the officer told Business Insider, mentioning Trump's attack on the family of Capt. Humayan Khan, a soldier who died during the Iraq War.

"The way that politicians continue to use veterans and fallen service members as political props makes me sometimes wonder why I even signed up to do this."

Source: BuzzFeed