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First of all, it's spelled "hordes". Yes, in the minds of many Arabs, there is still some sort of antagonism between Islam and the West. However, we don't think that way. We couldn't care less about Islam, the religion. We only want to defend ourselves from being attacked again. So, from our point of view, there is no sense in calling the war a religious war - we're not fighting about religious beliefs, we're fighting about self-preservation.
Now, about your contention that the West doesn't comprehend the terms of battle. The United States has the most powerful military in the world. The next most powerful are in Europe. If we were fighting wars in the same spirit they were fought 1000 years ago, we could wipe out all Islamic countries in the blink of an eye. But of course, we won't do that. That's my point - that the current conflict has nothing to do with past conflicts. The battles of the past have nothing to do with the terrorism of the present.