{"id":65963,"date":"2020-04-20T08:00:41","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T08:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/04\/20\/ive-reported-on-war-for-years-im-more-afraid-now-than-ive-ever-been\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T11:57:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T11:57:51","slug":"ive-reported-on-war-for-years-im-more-afraid-now-than-ive-ever-been","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/opinion\/commentary\/2020\/04\/20\/ive-reported-on-war-for-years-im-more-afraid-now-than-ive-ever-been\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve reported on war for years. I\u2019m more afraid now than I\u2019ve ever been."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Angry and armed protesters <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/nation\/2020\/04\/16\/michigan-whitmer-conservatives-protest\/\" target=_blank>shout down authorities<\/a> and call for the imprisonment of a democratically elected leader. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a neighboring state, another irate gathering is marching on a capitol and demanding change, or else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019ve seen episodes like these while reporting on conflict and unrest in Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But I never expect to see it in Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky, like we have in recent days. Protesters furious with the shutdown orders and social distancing, some waving Trump flags and others bearing swastikas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For years I kept one eye on the hysteria and extremism that\u2019s been brewing in America while I covered atrocities half a world away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now that I spend more time in the states covering the Rust Belt and Appalachia, I must admit: I\u2019m more afraid now than I ever was in a war zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let me be clear: I\u2019m not afraid of being killed in a gun battle or bombing on American soil, although by the looks of some of those protesters with the semi-automatic, military-style weapons, they appear to be itching for armed insurrection. They may just be waiting for some supreme conspiracy theorist, like QAnon or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2020\/04\/17\/liberate-trump-tweets-support-protesting-against-stay-at-home-orders\/\" target=\"_blank\">the president<\/a>, to give them the green light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Warzone deaths, while horrible, can at least be instantaneous and painless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nowadays, I\u2019m afraid that America&#8217;s demise, (not to mention my own), will be slow, agonizing and too much to bear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The last four-plus years of U.S. happenings have been fraught with the kind of anti-intellectualism and hatred of \u201coutsiders\u201d I\u2019ve seen peddled by inept, tinpot dictators the world over and those with cruel acumen to sustain their tyrannical rules. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019ve seen some of what\u2019s playing out in America in countries riddled with bullet holes and craters where suicide bombers drove into a crowded market. Before they were destroyed, some of them were pretty nice, stable places. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m afraid this hatred of reason and logic that pervades Trump\u2019s daily televised rallies from the White House is just the beginning of our slow painful decay into one of those nations that \u201conce was\u201d much more than it is now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m afraid this country\u2019s decline into economic shambles will drive some to act on their darkest instincts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m afraid too many people still think it \u201ccan never happen here,\u201d even though I assure them it already is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m afraid it\u2019s too late to halt the unraveling of the sometimes grand \u201cAmerican Experiment\u201d led by a president seemingly hell bent on accelerating it with the help of his well-armed sycophants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m afraid that as an American, I will be persona non grata around the world for months or years to come because my country is struggling to contain the virus, which brings me to my greatest fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My 3-year-old daughter Francesca is in Croatia, where I split my time. I was looking forward to being with her again, until my flight was cancelled last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every day I video chat with her and her mother. But it\u2019s no substitute for being there and hugging my daughter. Instead, I watch from afar as her hair gets longer, her drawings get better and her reading improves. I also watch her endure this hardship without her daddy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, Croatian leaders are saying they won\u2019t accept people from countries, like say the United States, to keep their own infection rate low. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m afraid I may not be with my little girl for a very long time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s what scares me the most. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Carmen Gentile is a longtime conflict reporter and author of \u201c<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Blindsided-Taliban-Journalists-Story-Trauma\/dp\/1510729682\" target=_blank><i>Blindsided by the Taliban<\/i><\/a><i>,\u201d the story of his injury in Afghanistan, recovery and return to front line reporting.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The author of this commentary says he did not expect to see the kind of unrest he experienced overseas in places like Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":99188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":78,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[78,100,23,93,25,14],"tags":[],"coauthors":[6128],"class_list":["post-65963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-middle-column","category-newsletters","category-opinion"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"NQQGECNQW5H6HG4EGXOOK3OE6Y","arc_canonical_url":"\/opinion\/commentary\/2020\/04\/20\/ive-reported-on-war-for-years-im-more-afraid-now-than-ive-ever-been\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>I\u2019ve reported on war for years. I\u2019m more afraid now than I\u2019ve ever been. - Army Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The author of this commentary says he did not expect to see the kind of unrest he experienced overseas in places like Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I\u2019ve reported on war for years. 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