The protagonists fought their wars by proxy: about a third of conflicts from 1950 to 1990 were connected to cold-war rivalry.

冷战的主角们通过代理人来打仗：从1950年到1990年，约1/3的冲突都和冷战双方的对抗有关。

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But the statement is a sign of growing concern in the US that the conflict in Syria is morphing into a complex regional war by proxy.

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Many Arab papers see the superpower confrontation over Syria as the start of a new Cold War by proxy, although one commentator says the Russian and Chinese positions could change.

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Left and right rarely meet in combat, preferring to fight their war by proxy: only 5% of their victims, it is reckoned, actually die with a gun in their hands.

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