When a presidential honor is dishonorable

Carryn Owens is a brave woman. Her late husband, Navy SEAL Ryan Owens, who was killed during a January raid ordered by President Trump, is an American hero. The widow’s willingness to stand and be recognized while fighting back tears at Trump’s address to the joint session of Congress on Tuesday night is a testament to her strength.

She was also taken advantage of by a politician starving to appear presidential. A politician who sent her husband on a mission in Yemen beset with errors, for which Trump has received wide condemnation — including from Ryan Owens’ father. On the morning of Trump’s speech, the president tried to dodge responsibility for the death, blaming it on “the generals.”

“They lost Ryan,” Trump told Fox News.

Sadly, the point- at- the- gallery moments have become an all too common gimmick in major addresses. By inviting soldiers and military widows, presidents can attempt to imbue themselves with secondhand heroism.

In 2014, President Obama used a portion of his State of the Union Address to praise Army Ranger Cory Remsburg, who was nearly killed in a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in 2009. Naturally, Obama skipped any mention of the fact that Remsburg was in Afghanistan because Obama tripled U. S. forces stationed there.

And let’s not forget Hillary Clinton’s generous use of Khizr and Ghazala Khan, Gold Star parents whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004. Notably, Trump insulted the Khan family’s speech at last year’s Democratic National Convention; it seems soldiers who die under his watch are far more deserving of honor.

That’s not to say presidents shouldn’t honor the heroism of America’s soldiers. But one can honor soldiers without turning their widows’ grief into a selfserving ratings- grabbing moment. Take Ronald Reagan, perhaps the most media- savvy president America has had, who was able to honor the dead with words, not exploitative gestures.

In his very first inaugural address, Reagan told the tale of World War I soldier Martin Treptow, who was killed while serving in France. “We’re told that on his body was found a diary,” Reagan began. “On the flyleaf under the heading, ‘ My Pledge,’ he had written these words: ‘ America must win this war. Therefore I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone.’ ”

Undoubtedly, the temptation for Trump to wrap himself in the valor of a recently deceased soldier was too much to resist. But recognizing honor does not, by extension, make one honorable.

Ryan Owens died on a mission trying to aid America’s fight against al- Qaeda. Let’s hope Trump didn’t summon his widow to Congress on a mission to aid the presidential fight against sagging approval ratings.