simple blur...

I'm trying to set up a simple scene. I have a fighter flying passed a burning hulk at full throttle. I've set up the camera and the fighter so that the fighter is crystal clear while the rest of the image is blurry.

Sound simple? I've just spent the past two hours trying to get my environmental map to blur...I've looked every where, pushed every button, and searched every source I know to figure out what the problem is but I can't find it.

I'm sure the answer is very simple, but impossible for me to find because I'm so ticked off at max. Can anyone help me out?