Government functions have two categories: domestic and foreign affairs (there are other ways to divide them).

Machiavelli's theory of monarchies seems to say that war is a means of diplomacy (or diplomacy as a means of avoiding war).

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In the Ebata family, my (Ebata's) role as the patriarch is diplomacy, negotiation, and war.

The second daughter said something like the above.

I also received the following line message from my first daughter the other day.

Why do my family members immediately think, "I (Ebata) made it go away through 'negotiation' and 'war'" whenever the problems get resolved?

It is disconcerting to me that people think that I am like the Ebata family's violent apparatus (the police and the Self-Defense Forces).

But I remembered that my sister thought so, too.