Hezbollah's new battle at home

For its part, Hezbollah endured a serious battering during 34 days of combat. Its south Lebanon tunnel complexes are being systematically discovered and destroyed. The Israelis also killed an estimated 600 militiamen, roughly 20 per cent of the Shiite movement's 3,000-strong cadre of hard-core Iranian-trained fighters. And when the usual calculus of combat casualties - two to three wounded for every dead fighter - is applied to Hezbollah, the picture for the militia looks even worse.

Of course, the Shiite militia has already begun to recruit and replenish its arsenal. But even with the best intentions of its Syrian and Iranian patrons, the task of restoring Hezbollah's full operational capacity will take many months, if not years.

And the question is whether the Lebanese people will again allow their country to be used by Iran as a surrogate battlefield.

For all Hassan Nasrallah's bluff and bluster, Hezbollah could be skating on very thin domestic political ice.