Is this conflict new Afghanistan?

For a time I've wondered if this is the start of another long drawn-out war, which has no winners, only losers.

Israel has won the past conflicts in very rapid manner even when the attack has been a total surprise. Their actions have been decisive and they have managed to establish control in the battlefield quite rapidly. Now, I can't see that happening with this attack to Lebanon. They are now facing an opponent which doesn't have a regular C&C structure and who doesn¨t obey the "rules of war", but act more like guerrilla fighters instead of regular army units.

Thus the IDF is forced to resort to attacks against poorly defined targets and area attacks where most (if not all) of the casualties have been civilian bystanders. Granted, those civilians might support and sympathize with Hezbollah, but that doesn't give anyone permission to indiscriminately slaughter them. And with that support Hezbollah has a strong backing and pool where to draw fresh recruits from.

It is much harder to fight against an opponent who has no clearly defined structure, organization and method in their doings. The Hezbollah is intermingled with the local civilian population and is using their support and presence to their benefit. And as always, the international opinion and pressure will be against those who are seem to be attacking civilians instead of the combatants. It makes no difference that in this kind of battle it's quite hard, if not impossible, to tell a combatant from incombatant.

It's all well and good to demand Hezbollah to surrender their arms and have Israel retreat back south of the border, but would you, would anyone give up their arms in a situation like this, where the kidnapping of two soldiers can escalate to full blown armed conflict? I, for one, would NOT dare to do that.

Maybe the only way to have peace in the Middle East is through superior firepower, but even in that case the firepower should be directed against the combatants, not against everyone. By attacking indiscriminately, the attacker only lays seeds where future insurgents can sprout from.