Sarah Paine

So it's really helpful in looking at people

when you have disagreements with them, is who is their primary adversary or rival?

Not their secondary.

They probably have a whole list of people who annoy them, but who's the number one?

And then where is the primary theater of wherever that disagreement is?

Look at that.

And then on the disagreement, how big a deal is it?

Is it existential?

Japan thought the reason why it's undeterrable that we didn't figure out, they thought their entire existence was at stake, that they absolutely had to have territory in China to survive.

And now whether that's correct or not is a completely different story.

If they believe it, that's what's motivating them.

When you're looking at the war on the Allied side, who's the primary enemy?

Hitler.

Where is the primary theater?

Germany, even though there's Japan, it was Germany first.

And what about the ultimate goals?

Well, actually that doesn't align at all, but because the Russians want a communist wonderland, we want everyone decolonized and the British want the empire in which the sun never sets, but they all shared an intermediate objective that Hitler has to go.

And that's a super glue of an alliance.

Now let's flip it to the axis.

Okay, Italy.