CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti — As people fight and die in Iraq, there’s a quieter war being waged to the south.

The U.S. military launched a pre-emptive strike on the hearts and minds of those living in the Horn of Africa. The United States, military officials say, wants to win the peace on the eastern side of the continent before war breaks out or bad guys move in.

Part of the team in place there is patrolling the busy seaway. Others are drilling wells, fixing up schools and creating jobs. If the United States and its allies make enough friends, according to the strategy, then maybe the Horn of Africa will become a very unfriendly place for terrorists.

“We’re prepared to fight,” said Marine Col. Craig S. Huddleston, chief of staff for Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa. “But our preference is to do it by helping people, not hurting people.”

The Horn of Africa — Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan — is due south of the terror-prone Middle East. The crux of the region is the 17-mile-wide Strait of Bab El Mandeb, which separates Yemen from Africa. It’s narrow enough for terrorists in a fast boat to cross in an hour, and busy enough for them to hide among the shipping traffic.

“The terrorist,” Huddleston said, “doesn’t need a passport or permission to travel.”

The Horn, a mostly impoverished area about two-thirds the size of the continental United States, would be a logical place for well-funded terrorists to find refuge.

“[Terrorism] is not new for our country,” said Maj. Tsegaye Debela of the Ethiopian Air Force, an adviser to CJTF-HOA. “Most of the people are appreciative of what the coalition forces, mostly U.S., are doing in Ethiopia.”

Surrounded by hot spots

Camp Lemonier, where about 1,500 U.S. troops are based, is surrounded by hot spots.

Sudan, for example, grabbed world attention this year for its alleged state-sponsored rape, pillaging and genocide in its Darfur region.

Anarchy has ruled Somalia for the past 13 years, though a new government there brings hope for change.

To the north of Djibouti, order in Eritrea currently is being kept by U.N. peacekeepers.

Ethiopia has been relatively peaceful since its military rulers were overthrown in 1991.

Kenya has worked through violent and fraud-plagued elections in the 1990s to relative stability.

Across the strait, Yemen suffered through civil wars in the 1970s and ’80s, but since has calmed.

In addition to civil wars, anarchy and murderous rulers, the region has seen its share of terrorism, as well as U.S. losses:

November 2002: A hotel bombing in Mombasa, Kenya, kills more than a dozen people. An attempt to down an Israeli airliner with a shoulder-held, surface-to-air missile also takes place.October 2000: A suicide boat attack on the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole kills 17 U.S. sailors in Yemen.August 1998: The American Embassy bombings in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, kill more than 200 people and injure thousands.October 1993: Rebel forces kill 18 American soldiers and wound more than 80 in Mogadishu, Somalia.Invitation arrives

Djibouti, a former French colony that gained independence in 1977, and whose leaders want it to become a bustling port and friendly place, invited the U.S. military onshore in May 2003.

“The threat here is real,” said Marine Capt. Brian Dibb, the Camp Lemonier force protection officer. “There are people out there who want to harm us and stop what we’re doing in the region.”

Huddleston said the U.S. military could simply hunt down terrorists, but that might create more enemies. So instead, they’re trying to build hope, make allies, and create a place where people will shun terrorists instead of supporting them.

“We’ll leave if the local people don’t want us here,” Huddleston said. “Or we’ll leave if the region has become stable and secure and not a friendly place for terrorists to be, or if [U.S. troops] are needed elsewhere.

“I think we’re going to be here long enough for the nations of the region to work together with all our other partners in the war on terrorism to eliminate the threat here.

“That’s why I think it will take awhile.”

Part of a bigger plan

The attempt to win the hearts and minds of East Africans is coming from inside and outside the region.

The fleet that patrols the Strait of Bab El Mandeb includes French, Dutch and British ships.

Troops training with the United States include Yemeni, Ethiopian, Djiboutian and Kenyan.

“It’s a war of ideas and concepts, and [the strategy] is about building a coalition,” said Marine Maj. Greg Beisbier, who runs a program that trains officers from neighboring nations on how to work as a team.

For example, Beisbier said, various nations are working together to build a secure computer network, similar to the U.S. Department of Defense’s Secure Internet Protocol Routing system, known as SIPR-NET, so they can share information confidentially.

Time will tell

Camp Lemonier was Spartan when the Americans arrived but has grown considerably in the past 18 months.

Now it is a relatively comfortable downrange base, about 88 acres with a good chow hall, lighted outdoor basketball court, and a spacious patio bar that has music and a three-beer limit.

The four major services work in unison; staffing is about 40 percent Marines and 20 percent each of Army, Navy and Air Force.

There are also 1,100 Djiboutians and contractors employed there.

“We put a huge amount of money into their economy and they are very much aware of that,” Dibb said.

“We may have beaten terrorist organizations to the punch here. We may have a little jump on them.”

Just south of Djibouti City, Tech. Sgt. Marshall Brown of Mount Vernon, Ky., is leading a team that is building a ford across a flood plain. The ford is on the main, dirt road that connects Djibouti City and the village of Holhol.

“If people can’t travel this road, they can’t get to town,” Brown said.

The World Food Organization also uses the road to transport food from the Port of Djibouti south into Ethiopia.

When it flooded, rocks washed across the road, making it useless after the water subsided. The ford will keep the road passable.

As a member of the Air Force's 823rd Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operations Repair Squadron, known as RED HORSE, based in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., Brown, 33, said he spends more than half of each year traveling the world working on projects.

Brown said he understood why his government deployed him and others to the Horn of Africa. Whether or not the mission will be worth it, Brown took a wait-and-see stance.

“I guess time will tell,” he said.

As jobs are created and people are helped, an intelligence network is emerging.

The tribesmen and other locals know bad guys when they see them and hopefully would share that information with coalition forces. The militaries of different nations are leveraging their assets.

Terrorists don’t stand a chance, at least not in Djibouti City, according to Said Haussein, director of port security and a member of the Djiboutian navy.

“There are people here who want their country and they want their peace,” Haussein said.

Added Dibb: “We’re not superheroes saving the day, but we are giving them a better future. We’re giving them a reason to see beyond tomorrow.”

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