If the US media could move beyond the battlebabble and political science analysis, the most obvious aspect of the long dance of death going on in the area is that the militant Islamicists now have the upper hand thanks in part to US policy. Whether we end up with a democratic Iraq or civil war, the majority Shia will have the upper hand and their religious leaders are trained in Shia Iran (who thank us for defeating their enemy Saddam Hussein).
In the West Bank, we snubbed the duly elected secular Arafat thus strengthening the Islamist Hamas. Then Israel and the US disregarded the election results pushing more and more moderate Muslims in the region to choose between a US/Israeli hegemony in the area, or the growing power of militant Muslims who do not think in terms of post WWI political boundaries.
Hezbollah was created in the early eighties as a response to Israel's invasion and now has the real power in Lebanon that their brother Islamic movement Hamas (first encouraged by Israel to be an internal enemy of the PLO) has in Palestine. Not all are Shia, but Iran (95% Shia) and now Shia-dominated Iraq are on a roll and have mostly Washington and Tel Aviv to thank. The recent move of Hezbollah on behalf of prisoners in the region can best be understood in terms of pan-Islamic solidarity.
Israel's present military actions are less to save a few soldiers and more to stop the successes of militant Islam in the entire area, including the most recent success in Somalia. Not to have invaded Gaza would have meant to ultimately deal with Hamas.
Events will get worse before they get even "more worse", unless the US decides to reconsider our failed policies based on raw power, and on whom we want to win democratic elections in the Middle East.
Adjunct Associate Professor Emeritus in Humanities
Comparative World History / Africa & Middle East
Austin College