George Bush doesn't get it. Neither does Congress. Nor, apparently, do a good number of the American people. The war for which the U.S. is gearing up, the war we are quite likely to begin in the near future, is the wrong kind of war.

The real war being raged between the Western world and those we have identified as our enemies is not a war of military weapons-whether nuclear, biological, or conventional. It is not really even a war yet to come. It is a war in which we have been engaged for many years. It is a war of ideas. And we are not winning.

Not only are we not winning this war of ideas; most of us are not even completely aware of just who the enemy is and the nature of the ideas. Within moments of the September 11 tragedy, of course, we knew that Osama bin Laden was to blame for one of the world's most horrific attacks ever. But we also knew that one man could not have accomplished all that horror alone. First, "the Taliban" of Afghanistan was the focus, and then the term "Al Qaeda" gradually came into view as the arena expanded into Pakistan and-where else? Cells around the world, and even in our own country?

The President had immediately identified the enemy as "the evildoers," "terrorists," or "the forces of hate." And well they might be. But these are uncomfortably nebulous phrases. Just who makes up this force? More recently, they have become "the Axis of Evil"-the countries of Iraq, North Korea, and Iran-as President Bush has attempted to clarify the focus of our attention. But even that term was too vague. Thus, a war against Saddam, a convenient and already despised enemy. Finally, the president has given the American people an identifiable enemy-a face worthy of a war. And in so doing, he has won support. Yet, the war of ideas goes stubbornly on, despite being ignored by the flag-waging, avenging patriots.

"Why do they hate us?" asked a child, after hearing the president and others talk about the hatred the enemy bears against us. It is a child's question, and it receives a child's answer-"because they are bad." No adult will dare ask the same question and demand an adult answer. To ask why implies a reason. And we prefer to think the enemy is mindless, and their actions without reason. To ask the question seriously requires us to drop the dichotomous rhetoric of good versus evil. It requires us to acknowledge that there might be a reason, and that acknowledgment seems to imply that our enemies are justified in their hatred. But to recognize the existence of a reason is not necessarily to justify the reason, to declare it valid. There are both legitimate and illegitimate-logical and illogical-reasons for behaviors and opinions. In order to do the necessary analysis, then, we must first understand and decline to reject the word "reason." We must face the "reason" question without flinching to learn everything we can in order to engage in this war of ideas.

"They" do, certainly, harbor great resentment and hatred against the Western World, personified most prominently by the United States. Might it not serve us to dare to investigate the basis of that hatred, not to justify, but to understand-to learn what war it is in which we really are engaged?

Despite Western protestations to the contrary, nearly every Middle Easterner names the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as one of the factors that make them hate us. Recently, Gallup pollsters interviewed more than 9,900 persons from nine predominantly Muslim countries. In that poll, Muslims called the U.S. "ruthless and arrogant," and declared themselves to be resentful of us. Specifically, they named our unbridled support f or Israel and our bias against Palestinians as the source of their resentment. In addition, they believe that American values are deeply materialistic and secular, in contrast to the religious values which underlie their societies. They also see the American culture as decadent. (A few minutes roaming the offerings on American television should explain why they see us this way.)

Articles in Newsweek have reported that many people around the world question why the U.S. should be the world's only Superpower, when they view us as acting in our own self-interest above all. They question why we should be able to decide who will govern a country half a world away from us. And, perhaps, they question whether we will stop with Iraq, or go on to attempt to determine who will govern their own countries. They also question why we should be able to define terrorism on our own terms, accusing Muslims, particularly the Palestinians, and not the Russians or the Israelis, of terrorism.

What really matters in this war of ideas is not whether or not these accusations are true-what matters most is that this is the way we are viewed by a large number of the world's Muslim people. Until we engage in this conflict of ideas, until we attempt to understand the thinking of this large segment of the world, we will have no chance of winning the real war.

Kay Shively, Vice Chair of the PF Steering Committee, is on the COG Global Missions national staff, and coordinates Special Assignment Missionaries and Recruitment.