DARK WITH BLOOD

Just surgical strikes, Israel's army commanders proudly proclaimed as they showed off video images of smart bombs intersecting cross hairs. This little war against Hizballah guerrillas in Lebanon was only a high-tech blitz on a bunch of terrorists, targeting specific buildings and vehicles hiding the enemy, avoiding nasty civilian casualties. In fact, two ambulances had been hit, three power plants had been damaged, and several hundred Lebanese, most of them noncombatants, had been killed or wounded. Still, for the first seven days, Israelis applauded the offensive, and much of the world tolerated it. But even the vaunted Israeli military machine proved...