Israel identifies dead soldiers

The Israeli army has confirmed that human remains handed over by Lebanon's Hezbollah as part of a prisoner swap are those of two of its soldiers.

The two men, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, were captured in 2006, but it was not certain they had died.

In return, Israel is handing over five Lebanese prisoners and the bodies of 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters.

The capture of the two Israeli soldiers sparked a month-long war between Israel and the Shia Islamist militant group.

Israeli generals have reportedly visited both the soldiers' families to inform them personally of the identification.

From BBC online.

I am very glad for this exchange overall. Any moves toward negotiation, including prisoner swaps and remains return, should be viewed in a poisitve light. At the end of it all though, all I can think is nicely done Israel (sarcasm implied). Come on, this is how it ends? Hezbollah captures two soldiers, Israel launches a war that kills 1000 (mostly civilian) Lebanese, and then in the end Israel releases several prisoners and sveral remains so that Hezbollah can give up the two, now dead, soldiers. Seriously Israel, wouldn't it have been a whole lot easier not to destroy Leabanon? You could have gotten the same thing, and maybe even two live soldiers instead, had you chosen not to blow up your neighbor. In the end, it looks like a big whopping victory for Hezbollah. I am mostly at a loss to understand Israel's strategies.