Here's why this war is so different

CAIRO - As America heals her deep wounds and the bits and pieces of evidence slowly form a clearer picture, our fight against terrorism feels a march into the great unknown.

The United States is gearing up for a war against a shadowy global enemy. The name on everyone's lips is that of exiled Saudi Arabian multimillionaire Osama bin Laden, thought to be hiding in the mountain caves of Afghanistan.

This battle will be like none we have seen before. While the drums of war beat, focusing on one fixed monolith that we can destroy is easy.

Unfortunately, this battle will never be so simple.

Living in Cairo during these tragic days, I have received many e-mails from people around the Middle East offering condolences. Several came from Algeria, a nation ravaged by Islamic terrorism for more than a decade. I traveled there last year to see how Algerians are trying to go on with their lives despite more than 100,000 of their countrymen dying in a battle that claims more lives nearly every week. In the capital, Algiers, I met an extraordinary young woman, Nadjet Bodet.

Brimming with the optimism of youth, Bodet struggles to promote human rights and to find a way to give hope of a better life to Algeria's young people. 'All I can say is that I'm sharing with you your pain and sorrow,' she wrote after last week's attacks. As a citizen of a country 'which is suffering from the atrocity of terrorism, you can be sure that I can feel what you are feeling,' she said. 'I hope you will face these circumstances with courage.'

Algeria's bloody battles against the Islamists, especially the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), continue today. Many Algerians who joined the GIA fought in Afghanistan along with Osama bin Laden against the Soviets and, their views radicalized, returned home to raise havoc and destruction. Others have joined bin Laden's network, Al-Qa'ida.

At the Maison de Press (Press House) in central Algiers, local journalists work behind barbed-wire-lined walls. This is no exaggerated precaution: About 70 Algerian journalists have been murdered in the country's civil war. Photographs in the building graphically record the country's carnage. Slaughter in the villages, bombings in the cities - everyone has been touched.

Much of the world doesn't understand what Islamic terrorism means, Said Chatour, a journalist who now works for the BBC, wrote in another e-mail. 'They have never seen one of the GIA putting a small baby in the oven ... or a massacre in the villages,' he explained. 'We will fight against bin Laden until the end, we will help the Americans for sure.'

This is not a 'crusade,' to quote President Bush's unfortunate choice of words. This is not a battle of the 11th century pitting Christianity against Islam. It would be a grave mistake to characterize this war as such.

Many here in the Middle East may not agree with U.S. foreign policies. Yet so many have welcomed me into their homes and spoken admiringly, sometimes emotionally, about America's freedoms and opportunities. Many, such as Bodet and Chatour, have fought for years the same battle we are preparing to fight, now that it has wounded our land in such a devastating manner.

Our allies in the region - Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia - will be instrumental in helping us to fight this battle. They, too, have felt the scourge of terrorism and still are battling homegrown terror.

That is why this war is so different. The terror that lives in the shadows, spewing hatred and confusion, would like no better than to make this into a medieval religious battle.

But, truly, this is a battle between those who look forward and embrace many of the principles our country was founded upon, and those who incite hatred and fear.

Bodet continues to fight for her cause - bringing democracy, human rights and freedom to a war-torn land. That is something we all should defend, no matter what creed or color.

Betsy Hiel is a Cairo-based correspondent for the Trib. Her articles and analyses from the region can be read online at tribLIVE.com . E-mail her at: hielb@yahoo.com