The Empress represents the power and chaos of creative potential to build, nourish, renew, and at times, ravage. She is pure emotion, defending, loving and offering mercy. Yet she can at times be like an unaware, vulnerable teen mother, who is without the intellectual understanding to grasp how she might unintentionally harm those who are innocent. The Mousebird is a small grayish or brownish bird that scurries through the leaves like rodents, in search of berries, fruit, and buds (which is how it got its common name). Rather than being solitary, these gregarious birds feed together outside the breeding season. The web in this card suggests that we consider our connections to others before we speak or act. Though our target may be specific when we launch an attack, we may fail to consider how our behavior may affect those who are blameless bystanders.
I think carpet bombing is an absolutely tremendous idea if the enemy accommodates you by laying himself out like a carpet in the middle of the desert without any civilians or infrastructure around him. Every civilian's death diminishes us, collectively. ~David Petraeus