I very much doubt that Hezbollah had any expectation whatsoever of wiping Israel off the map in this latest fight. ;-) The Israelis, on the other hand, did have an expectation that they were going to wipe Hezbollah off the map, and that expectation has not been met. That is why I say Hezbollah has won the psychological victory here.

You have to separate populist rhetoric from actual military planning. If Ahmadinejad or some other spokesman quotes the Ayatollah Komeini making a statement many years ago that it would be good to "wipe Israel off the map", it's populist rhetoric, geared for the ears of a local audience. As such, it has bloodly little or nothing to do with military realities and military planning by someone like Hezbollah.

Bush uses such rhetoric too. He talks about the desirability of achieving "regime change" in other countries. He talks about "taking out" this government or that one. Such talk is never appreciated much by the people whom it is aggressively aimed at, but it's lapped with enthusiasm up by the more bloody-minded members of the loyal home audience, isn't it?

Were the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto using "human shields" when they rose up against the Nazis? Were the Poles in Warsaw using "human shields" when they did the same thing later in the war and rose up against the might of the German occupying forces?

I'm sure the Nazis accused them all of so doing. I'm sure the Nazis reviled them all for not wearing uniforms, and for skulking and hiding amongst the civilian infrastructure and causing "needless civilian casualties" (although in truth they of course didn't give a damn about that).

This sort of thing is always seen as "bad" when you think you're good and the other guy is bad...and when you have the far greater military power on the scene. It's seen as "good" when those roles are reversed, and YOU are the guys who must hide amidst the ruins and fight a far more powerful opponent.

Hezbollah did exactly what the militarily weaker forces always do in the face of a far better armed opponent. That is guerilla warfare.