Saturday, September 29, 2007

A Visitor

He struts ahead
pompously, chest
thrust forward, head
nodding, nervous, eyes
alert for danger, past
our house. A touch
of self-importance there,
I judge. I have
a question for this
crow: why walk
when you can fly?


And...

Do you think that the US would have more leverage with nations like China, India and Russia on the Burma crisis, had we not blotted our international copybook so badly with Iraq--and with our generally arrogant, world-strutting attitude, these past few years? Just wondering... It's frustrating to see us so weak and ineffectual when monks and other citizens are being beaten and done to death by those intolerable generals and their military minions. Would we have been so completely powerless had we not squandered the goodwill extended to us at the time of the World Trade Center attacks?

5 comments:

robin andrea said...

Great description. Yes, I agree the crow does look to have a touch of self-importance.

flutter said...

I don't think it would matter in the case of China.

Taradharma said...

ah, gotta love those pompous crows!

Who knows how badly we've damaged our rep? It was pretty bad before -- we are the bully on the block who preaches to everyone else about their behavior. I think only international pressure will help. Demonstrations at embassies.

khengsiong said...

I guess I gotta agree with flutter with regard to China. Russia? Nobody can control Putin. India and ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) - probably yes.

Anonymous said...

I don't agree. History has to be looked at in much longer swathes than even decades. The US has basically been in decline for the last fifty years. What we are witnessing now are the final years of this decline, when military power has shown to be ineffective against new ideas from emerging nations, the only thing we seem to have exported sucessfully (with the exception of Asia) is obesity.