Profile Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn

Showing posts with label Response to letter on draft from Senator John McCain.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Response to letter on draft from Senator John McCain.. Show all posts

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Response to letter from Senator McCain head of Senate Military Group to me and my response:

Response to letter from Senator McCain head of Senate Military Group to me and my response:


June 30, 2016

Rabbi David E. Eidensohn

Monsey, NY 10952



I contacted various senators in Washington, DC regarding the drive to draft women into the military. I opposed this on the ground that an enormous number of women are abused sexually and it gets worse every year, although the Defense Department has struggled since 2004 to stop it. If a woman joins the army voluntarily, that is her decision if she wants to be in a situation of abuse and I am limited in my complaints. But how can the military force a woman into the military by drafting her, where everybody knows that rape and abuse is rampant, is getting worse, and is so bad that abused women don’t usually bother reporting it? One reason is that the complaint goes to a senior military commander who sometimes rules that the rapist is innocent and then begins a process of destroying the name of the complainer. This information and much more is on the website of US senator Kirsten Gillibrand in the section on the military. I have also a 700 page on abuse from the Defense Dept FY2012.

The senior senator on the military is Senator John McCain. I expressed my reservations about the draft and he responded as follows:



June 30, 2016 

Mr. David Eidensohn
2 Phyllis Terrace
Monsey, NY 10952-2724
Dear Mr. Eidensohn:
     Thank you for contacting me to relay your concerns regarding female service members in combat roles in the military. I appreciate you taking the time to share your views with me.  I sincerely apologize for the delay in my response.

     Over two years ago the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the decision to open certain combat roles for women. I do not feel that Congress should overturn this decision made by our military leaders. As you know, female service members are serving in hostile locations around the world and in all branches of the military. Many women have made the ultimate sacrifice through their service, and our nation owes them a deep debt of gratitude.
 
     The military services are currently working to ensure we maintain the very same high standards that separate the quality of the United States military from the rest of the world — particularly the standards for our elite special forces units. 
 
     Again, thank you for contacting me on this important matter. Please feel free to contact me on this or any other matter in the future.
 

         Sincerely,
https://outreach.senate.gov/iqextranet/Customers/quorum_mccain-iq/McCainSig.jpg
        John McCain
        United States Senator

 JM/ak

https://outreach.senate.gov/iqextranet/Customers/quorum_mccain-iq/iqtrk.gif?crop=15862.18281373.6073785.7279836

Senator McCain’s letter has nothing to do with my complaints, as is obvious. Of course, he has to answer many letters and maybe he just has them put into general sections. This letter was obviously not about my complaints but included in the pile of letters and emails that opposed women being in the army, which was not the topic of my complaint, as I mention above. I say simply that to draft a woman against her will when you know she has a good chance of being abused and even raped is wrong. And furthermore, until the military somehow finds a way to put men and women in the same army without abuse, they should not draft any women. But on second thought, what can Senator McCain answer to my complaints about abuse in the military?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand demanded an investigation into very serious complaints against the Defense Department and the huge amount of abuse and what it seems are questionable and even lies perpetrated at the highest level of the military and Defense Department.

Senator McCain refused the demand of Senator Gillibrand to investigate charges against the military despite the fact that it was backed by many senators of both parties and important sections of the country. He has no answer.

 But I should be grateful for Senator McCain for writing to me. At least he proved that he tries to be polite. But is he polite to the women who are raped? And if he has no answer to this, this itself is an answer. It is an answer that raped women are not something he is interested in.

Any senator who wants to draft women knowing that many will be abused and even raped, should be ashamed, not a senator, and not even consider himself a decent human being.



Sincerely,

David Eidensohn

845-578-1917