"war with words"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 2/4/2014 08:53 AM, Amy West wrote:
>On 2/4/14 12:00 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
>>Date:    Mon, 3 Feb 2014 09:38:36 -0500
>>From:    Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>>Subject: Re: "war with words" aka "paper war"?
>>
>>What makes it noteworthy is that the established idiom has apparently
>>become opaque to some people who are educated enough to write news copy for
>>a giant corporation.
>>
>>What's more, had the writer been familiar with "war of words," he'd
>>certainly have used it to avoid having two "withs" in the space of three
>>words.
>>
>>JL
>Not necessarily. The choice of that first "with" may have been
>influenced by thinking ahead to that second "with." To Google Ngrams,
>Lightman?
>
>---Amy West

Which would one say/not say?

War with words with Safire
War with swords with the Saracens
War with pistols with [? I can only think of duels]
War with nuclear arms with the Soviet Union

(I would myself use "of" or perhaps "using/employing" in place of the
first "with", but then it's a different question with perhaps a
different answer.)

Joel

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