Country first? More like, Me first

I time shifted the GOP Convention tonight, and just finished watching the film about Michael Monsoor, a Navy Seal Medal of Honor winner who died in Iraq two years ago.  As I watched it, I wondered why this was being shown at a political convention (as part of a series of speeches and appearances designed to emphasize John McCain's military srevice and time as a POW) -- had he been an active Republican? Did he have some direct connection to John McCain?  No answers were forthcoming on that front.  I was thinking it was sort of shameless using this young man's service for partisan purposes when he wasn't in a position to say it was okay.  Then they showed film from ihs funeral.  For over five years, young men and women have died in Iraq, and the White House and the Department of Defense have done everything in their power to prevent us seeing images of  coffins being unloaded from transport planes or of soldiers' funerals --even in instances in whcich the family wanted to allow those images.  Yet here we have film shot at a moving funeral for a brave young soldier that does see the light of day, but to serve as an ad for a presidential candidate.

I sometimes think I've gotten pretty jaded, but this just disgusts me.  It's rank exploitation, and it doesn't matter to me if his sister is there or not.  John McCain and the GOP are using this man's death for political gain, pure and simple.  Have they, at long last, no sense of shame?
 
Update: Here's the video so you can judge for yourself whether it was appropriate to sandwich this between tributes to McCain's  POW experience and attacks on Obama.