An entirely conventional conflict, it proved that nuclear weapons were not the be-all and end-all of warfare.

They weren't massacres of civilians without warning or outside a conventional conflict between states.

"It is not unlikely that history will repeat itself in a future, short notice, conventional conflict if planning is based on optimistic casualty estimates."

The standoff over the water supply has brought the two sides ever closer to the brink of a conventional conflict.

But neither we nor our European allies could possibly profit by converting conventional conflict into a nuclear exchange.

The study's authors said strategic deterrence had prevented nuclear conflict and probably conventional conflict in Europe as well.

About a quarter of the 250 B-52's have been assigned to missions with non-nuclear high-explosive weapons in a conventional conflict.

Today, no senior American or Soviet military official seriously believes both nations can engage in a conventional conflict that would not rapidly turn nuclear.

Ironically, this development seems to have pushed conventional conflict waged by the state to the sidelines.

Never have children been struck down with such savagery and determination outside conventional conflicts.