(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/121213-egypt-hmed145p.photoblog600.jpg)Gianluigi Guercia / AFP - Getty ImagesEgyptian army tanks are deployed outside the presidential palace in Cairo on Thursday. By Ayman Mohyeldin, NBC News News analysis
Editor's note: This story includes a correction. (http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3891881/)
Updated at 7:25 a.m. ET: CAIRO -- Many hailed the emergence of civilian rule in Egypt when then recently elected Islamist President Mohammed Morsi ordered the country’s armed forces back to their barracks in August, after they had led the county for close to a year and a half.
But within months, the same military was functioning as the country's auxiliary police force, ensuring the safety and integrity of the upcoming constitutional referendum, and protecting the presidency – both physically by guarding the palace and politically by acting as an intermediary to diffuse political tensions between Islamists and the opposition.
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