My take on this is - The more we squeeze the borders when defining a term, the less we are left with to write on. Its a 2000+ words essay and we cant limit 'fighting' to just 'bombarding' and 'troops'.

If we were to write on 'A hungry man can go to any extreme', we cant just stick to the dictionary definition of a 'man' and make the whole essay revolve around that. The sagacious writer will expand the meaning of a 'man' to a 'man, society, nation etc'.

I will agree that if we keep our focus on just the nation-nation fight and write a comprehensive essay with supportive arguments and examples, it will suffice. But those, who widen the meaning of the term fight and win are doing NO wrong either if their arguments are convincing.