I'll start by admitting I don't know a whole lot about this. And I also want to put it out there that I truly respect all branches of our armed forces and all the men and women who serve our country.
I guess each year on Patriots' day, people in Camp Arifjan in Kuwait run a marathon, and the BAA provides Boston Marathon finisher's medals, certificates and bibs. This doesn't make me mad per se, has no effect on me, my life, or my qualifying chances. I just think personally I wouldn't want to sport a bib, medal, or what have you if I actually haven't run that particular race, especially when it comes to Boston, and especially if you did not qualify, which I am guessing is the case for most of these runners, though I don't know for sure.
They cancelled the World Series due to war (think A League of Their Own). The movie where Rosie O'Donnell was the pitcher,,, or was she the catcher? I don't remember. People get injured, pregnant, sick, death in families, the race will be there in the future, if you want to run it, qualify or raise money for a charity like everyone else, it will just mean more.
Same principle with bandits and course cutters, you can do it, but to me anyway it just wouldn't mean anything if you don't do it the right way.
Continue giving these brave men and women discounts, health care, the GI BIll etc etc, but if you want a BM medal, run the actual race.