mussolini like hitler was trying to do too much with too little. both men lacked focus. they needed to limit their objectives and narrow their attention. mussolini went to war with france and britain in 1940. ok, stay on that - don't attack greece as well!  but the 'roman empire' thing meant he wanted greece, so he attacked greece. this had several dire consequences 1) embarrassing italian defeat 2) yugoslavs, alarmed by albania/greek invasion, and emboldened by italian weakness, defect to allies. now entire balkans is hostile. 3) hitler is forced to waste several months restoring order there, disrupting his barbarossa schedule, with possibly decisive results.
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