Thomson Reuters
File photo of Sarah Palin speaking at the 42nd annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland.
Track Palin, 26, was arrested this week on suspicion of assaulting his girlfriend and carrying a gun while intoxicated, police said, according to Reuters.
The arrest came just hours before Sarah Palin endorsed Republican front-runner Donald Trump for president.
At a rally in Oklahoma on Wednesday, Palin addressed Track's arrest, citing his PTSD and indirectly blaming President Barack Obama for failing to adequately support veterans.
"I guess it's kind of the elephant in the room because my own family going through what we're going through today with my son, a combat vet ... like so many others, they come back a bit different. They come back hardened," Palin said at the rally. "They come back wondering if there is that respect for what their fellow soldiers and airmen and every other member of the military so sacrificially have given to the country."
She then said that she related to other families who "feel these ramifications of PTSD" and said it's now crucial that veterans "have a commander-in-chief who will respect them."
"They have to question if they're respected anymore. It starts from the top," she said. "The question, though, that comes from our own president where they have to look at him and wonder, 'Do you know what we go through? Do you know what we're trying to do to secure America?'"
But some veterans have denounced Palin's comments and provided counter-narratives about their own experiences with PTSD.
Phil Klay, author of "Redeployment," an award-winning collection of short stories on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, tweeted a previous op-ed he wrote for The Wall Street Journal on veteran stereotypes "in light of [the] recent 'his deployment made him hit his girlfriend' argument."
"For a certain subset of the population, my service means that I - along with all other veterans - must be, in some ill-defined way, broken," Klay wrote. "I suppose it is the lot of soldiers and Marines to be objectified according to the
Klay also pointed out that "the crime rate for veterans is comparable to, if not lower than, the civilian crime rate."
Several veterans called out Palin directly. Paul Rieckhoff, who heads Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told NBC News that Palin should "resist the urge to politicize" PTSD.
More than 100 people, meanwhile, retweeted the first of several tweets from Nate Bethea, a veteran who is studying fiction writing at Brooklyn College. He explained the flaws in Palin's logic:
Since Palin decided to drop PTSD as an excuse for her (combat veteran) son's actions, I suppose it's a good time to discuss it publicly.
- Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) January 21, 2016Full disclosure: I get a disability payment from the VA every month, and 50 percent of my total 60 percent disability rating is from PTSD.
- Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) January 21, 2016Here are examples of how PTSD affects me. Feel free to compare / contrast with various cultural tropes of "defective / dangerous veterans."
- Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) January 21, 2016A few months ago, I was the passenger in a car when the driver, my boss, got into a heated discussion with people in his neighborhood.
- Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) January 21, 2016I was the passenger and found myself stuck between them, completely out of control while they argued. Emphasis: no control in the situation.
- Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) January 21, 2016All was well until I got home and wanted to drink a lot and couldn't sleep despite being drunk. At 4 am I was totally sleepless. So...
- Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) January 21, 2016I used the one thing that helps me sleep no matter what: cannabis, which I don't enjoy, but it works. Went out the next day and felt awful.
- Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) January 21, 2016I felt hostile towards everyone I saw and wanted to go home immediately after leaving my apartment. I walked out into the city for exercise.
- Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) January 21, 2016But I felt like I was sweating between my organs. I couldn't stand being outdoors and I had to get home. But, here's the point of this:
- Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) January 21, 2016At no point did I lash out at anyone, because that would have made me feel worse. It would have confirmed my suspicions of being defective.
- Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) January 21, 2016Track Palin has to deal with his own issues, don't get me wrong, but there's no explaining away personal responsibility. It still exists.
- Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) January 21, 2016Bethea explained that, to him, PTSD is not "a surge in uncontrollable violence," but rather "the shame that comes from feeling defective." He also said that his feelings toward PTSD have "nothing to do with" Obama:
But, what the hell does all of this have to do with the President? My problems have nothing to do with whether or not Obama "respects" me.
- Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) January 21, 2016My problems have to do with the friends I lost and the people I couldn't save and the random explosions that came, well, at random.
- Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) January 21, 2016The fact is, people with PTSD still have dignity and they're still expected to obey societal norms like anyone else. Veteran or otherwise.
- Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) January 21, 2016Hearing about Track Palin's issues makes me think he needs serious counseling. But, that need doesn't forgive his act of domestic violence.
- Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) January 21, 2016The idea that Palin can pin this on Obama is absurd. She's an idiot, a white trash sideshow. She's unadulterated Mat-Su Valley garbage.
- Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) January 21, 2016But underneath her nonsense lies a very dangerous allegation - that all veterans are ticking time bombs, ready to brandish weapons.
- Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) January 21, 2016So, in summary: I hope Track Palin gets the help he needs and stops hurting people. I hope his mom stops enabling his abusive behavior.
- Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) January 21, 2016Bethea also pointed to the Twitter feed of Brandon Friedman, the CEO of The McPherson Square Group and a former public-affairs official in the Obama administration who served as an infantry officer in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I absolutely hate that PTSD is trending because Sarah Palin blamed it for her son's violent assault on his girlfriend," Friedman tweeted.
He criticized Palin for politicizing her son's PTSD and tweeted statistics about veterans with the disorder:
If battering his girlfriend and his reported suicide threat are related to PTSD, then it's probably not helpful to use as a campaign prop.
- Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) January 20, 2016Need to be explicitly clear about combat PTSD: It can cause anger and irritability, but manifesting as physical violence is rare.
- Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) January 20, 2016It does in a small percentage of cases, but by and large, sufferers of PTSD are more likely to harm themselves than others.
- Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) January 20, 2016If you know a few combat veterans, you know someone with PTSD. They probably don't batter their wives or girlfriends.
- Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) January 20, 2016Palin said today that her domestic abuser son is a victim of Obama's neglect for vets. Did she mention the actual victim--the girlfriend?
- Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) January 20, 2016Since we're talking about it, some facts about PTSD follow. (Please share.): 1. 10-20% of Iraq/Afghanistan veterans have combat-related PTSD
- Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) January 21, 20162. Symptoms include nightmares, insomnia, hyper-vigilance, irritability, anger, emotional distance, and depression
- Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) January 21, 20163. In rare cases, symptoms can precipitate physical outbursts
- Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) January 21, 20164. Consequently, the rate of domestic violence among veterans is higher than the general public; however it is still rare among veterans
- Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) January 21, 20165. There is no evidence tying PTSD to a propensity to commit murder
- Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) January 21, 2016Other veterans have tweeted similar criticism:
In @SarahPalinUSA'a desperate scramble to relieve her son of any personal responsibility for his crime, she gives us all bad names @politico
- Fetch Me My Bayonet! (@CombatCavScout) January 20, 2016And if @SarahPalinUSA is so concerned about how soldiers are coming back "so hardened," maybe her party should stop sending us. @politico
- Fetch Me My Bayonet! (@CombatCavScout) January 20, 2016We need a Commander-in-Chief who will apologize for Palin.
- Sergeant Ute (@SgtUte) January 20, 2016