Free Republic

Bloodshed intermingled with blood oaths early Wednesday in Egypt, as time appeared to be running out for Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy. … Demonstrations elsewhere in Egypt were mostly peaceful, and protest leaders have called for nonviolence. But as a deadline approached on an ultimatum the military gave Morsy this week, the leaders spoke of potential bloodshed. “We swear by God that we are ready to sacrifice our blood for Egypt and its people against any terrorist, extremist or ignorant,” they said in a statement, which was titled “The Final Hours.” …

Dozens of Shiite radicals scrambled on Friday to sign blood oaths to continue their fight against US forces in Iraq despite an order from their leader Moqtada al-Sadr for them to lay down their arms. Children as young as 10 were among those seen cutting their thumbs with scalpels and putting a bloodied fingerprint to a document circulated by members of the Sadr movement in the cleric's eastern Baghdad bastion of Sadr City. All vowed to fight on, despite orders by Sadr on Thursday to his 60,000-strong Mahdi Army militia to suspend their armed operations indefinitely. The order followed two...