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Originally Posted by Castout
when it comes to invading another country
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Invasion? Not in my book, and I tend to see it more like wikipedia also defines it:
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The term invasion usually denotes a strategic endeavor of substantial magnitude; because the goals of an invasion are usually large-scale and long-term, a sizeable force is needed to hold territory, and protect the interests of the invading entity. Smaller-scale, tactical cross-border actions, such as skirmishes, sorties, raids, infiltrations or guerrilla warfare, are not generally considered invasions. A military endeavor to take back territory that is tenuously held by an initial invader during the course of war is instead generally called a counter-offensive.
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The key terms here are "long-term" and "hold territory". In that Hezbollah has raided Israel's North in open provokation since long before, both with commandos on the ground and missiles androckets, the cross border operation by the IDF in my book is a counter-offensive. It was clear from beginning on that Israel eniether had the inention nor was prepared to conquer ground and seize it for long time to come. The operation was meant to go in, kill as much of Hezbollah as possible, and then go out again. Unfortuntely, one had msassively underestimated Hezbollah.
Just months later, Hezbollah was reported to have re-armed to even greater strength than before, trained and equipped by Iran. So much for that European hobby of having EU ships patrolling the Lebanese coast up and down, killing time.