You mean there have actually been terror attacks in Egypt before they sent troops to Iraq?
Wasn't Anwar Sadat assasinated by an islamic extremist?
history lesson
and admittedly, not a very good one. from my somewhat jumbled memory.
around the turn of the 20th century there was a fundamentalist movement centered in Egypt and a famous radical cleric. their objective was to impose their own version of Islam on the government and affairs of that nation, and the others throughout the Arab World. this movement had a lot of support and they engaged in various violent actions against the government.
in the complicated formula for the affairs of the region, the British realized that the radicals in Egypt were a threat to their desires to build and maintain the Suez Canal.
one of the reasons that the British (in their on/off) decision to allow/promote the Jewish resettlement of Palestine was to provide a Western/secular foothold in the western mediterranian area.
this policy was implemented, the canal was built, the state of Israel was created and maintained, and the more radical Arabs have been pissed off about it ever since.
this issue will never die. there will always be this sub-context to any Western presence. but what is to me/us a subcontext, long lost to our memories, is to many in the region a really BIG THING....and a rallying point for resistance to modification of their culture and religion.