Dan Simpson reflects on losing his friend Warren Weinstein. Perspectives,
He lived a life of loving his family and helping others
The fact that the United States killed my old friend Warren Weinstein, held hostage in South Asia since 2011, in a drone strike, hit me like a ton of bricks Thursday morning.
I first met Warren in 1968 when he was a young scholar in Burundi, writing a book about the place, and I was a young diplomat at the American embassy in Bujumbura. Then, and throughout a long career, Warren was the best of Americans overseas. He was sensitive to the needs of the people he worked with as an officer of the U.S. Agency for International Development and as a private aid contractor. He was a kind and loving husband, father and grandfather.
It was horribly wrong for extremists to have grabbed him in Pakistan and held him for ransom or for whatever. And now he is dead, and we killed him. I don’t know what to say to his wife Elaine and his daughters.
I had tried, in a small way, to obtain his freedom. I talked to the Department of State. I enlisted our congressman, Rep. Mike Doyle, to approach Secretary of State John Kerry to underline the urgency of obtaining Warren’s release, as he was an older, ailing man.
When the United States traded prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in 2014 for the release of Sgt. Bowe Berghdal, I wrote a column for the Post-Gazette urging that the United States trade a few more of the prisoners we don’t know what to do with for Warren.
Thursday morning I realized it hadn’t worked. Much worse, we had killed Warren. He was 73.
I understand the attraction of drone strikes. No American lives are risked, unless American citizens are the targets. Four have been killed by U.S. drone strikes, all without due process of law — no trial, no defense, no nothing, just President Barack Obama’s checking off the name, if that actually occurs.
I guess I am persuaded that the drone strike that killed Warren was carried out without knowledge that he was there, although my confidence in that being the case is made a little shaky by the numerous civilian deaths — what our military and intelligence officials call “collateral damage” — that occur with drone strikes.
It was appropriate for Mr. Obama to publicly address Warren’s family and the nation on the subject of his death, but I have to say that the word “hypocrite” flashed across my mind as he spoke, particularly as we continue to wage war in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Yemen, including with drones.
All that I know, and that other Americans should know, is that Warren Weinstein was a fine man who had lived a life of service to his country and to humanity, and that the manner and circumstances of his death were truly appalling.
Dan Simpson, a former U.S. ambassador, is a columnist for the Post-Gazette (dsimpson@post-gazette .com, 412-263-1976).