skirmish

The whole thing has turned from skirmish into full-on war in less than a couple of years.

And, of course, the oil companies used the skirmish over there to scare up domestic oil prices.

And of course the oil companies used the skirmish over there to scare up domestic oil prices.

And of course the oil companies used the little skirmish over there to scare up domestic oil prices.

This person both repels others with a stronger force as well as draws in/invites the odd skirmish.

Never mind the current Amazon vs. Hachette skirmish; that’s just a sideshow.

The Sino-Indian war dismissed as a minor border skirmish?

I think that the FBI isn't really the overblown privacy killing big govt overlords that this lil anon skirmish seems to paint them as.

Citizen-owned firearms might have been handy in the odd skirmish, but they didn't cause legislators or law enforcement to back down.

The skirmish will continue unescalated because neither side can afford to stop the gas pipelines flowing through Ukraine.

A better tactic is probably "Get more ahead so we win the next skirmish, too, snowballing until we win by concession or overwhelming force.

All those decade-long budgets and long-term plans are a sham that survives in the best case until next 2 year election, but more commonly till the next budget skirmish that happens once a couple of months.