What happens when you take a disillusioned electorate that has discovered it elected a would-be dictator, and the group that wanted a dictator all along?  Inevitably, you get what happened overnight in Cairo.  Clashes between growing legions of protesters and Muslim Brotherhood counterprotesters killed five people and wounded hundreds more, while Mohamed Morsi called in tanks to protect the presidential palace:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Five people were killed and hundreds wounded in violent clashes between supporters and opponents of Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi that raged for several hours into early Thursday morning.

Angry mobs battled each other with Molotov cocktails, rocks and sticks outside the presidential palace complex.

On Thursday, witnesses told Reuters that there also appeared to be at least four tanks outside the palace and Egypt State Radio said that two armored personnel carriers had been deployed in a nearby area called Roxy in an attempt to separate the two sides.

CNN also has this report on the deployment of tanks and troops to protect Morsi’s position — troops from the Republican Guard, notably, and not regular Army units:

“But the constitution has term limits,” notes the CNN anchor. Well, you can see just how much trust Egyptians have in the draft constitution and the Muslim Brotherhood to abide by it. If they suspended judicial enforcement to draft it, why would the CNN anchor expect Egyptians to trust them to obey it later?

More demonstrations are planned for today.