President Morsi fires Tantawi

HERE.

I certainly won’t miss the head of SCAF, but more interesting is what a surprise this story is. It’s a surprise because I didn’t think Morsi had quite that level of power yet. I thought the Brotherhood would kind of chip away at the military establishment over time and take real power more gradually.

But here Morsi is, firing Tantawi just 6 or so weeks after he was barely allowed to win the Presidential election, and only a few weeks after trying what I and many others regarded as a rash political move: trying to reinstate the dissolved Parliament.

Perhaps the Brotherhood’s position is already stronger than we thought. Alternatively, perhaps there were simply divisions with SCAF and growing anti-Tantawi sentiment and Morsi capitalized on that.

Whatever the reason, I’m surprised this happened so soon.