I wouldn't call it cowardice. To voluntarily sacrifice your life to strike at the enemy takes more determination and resolve than I'd bet most of our soldiers have. You can call it cruel, criminal, and unjust, but cowardly it's not.
You have to understand their way of thinking, as well. The Palestinians were literally kicked out of their traditional homelands to make room for jews. Imagine if tommorow the UN came into Phoenix and ordered all of us to relocate to refugee camps in the Nevada desert because Arizona was being returned to Mexico. The Palestinians have a very, very legitimate reason to be angry.
Now, that being said, Israel does exist. In the past, they have offered the Palestinians 95% of what they want in an effort to make a peaceful settlement, and it was rejected. They've fought to defend their nation, not to conquer or eliminate others. And now armed groups infiltrate their country and kidnap their soldiers. They have no choice but to do what they are doing now. Frankly, I think now it is more about pummmeling the sh!t out of Hezbollah than getting their soldiers back, and that's probably what needs to happen.
And nuking the Middle East would create more problems than it would solve; the backlash from that from every other nation in the world would be like nothing we've ever seen. And, you still haven't solved the problem; Islamic extremism is also rampant throughout Africa, parts of the Southeast Asia, and increasingly in Europe.
Doc, this war can end without all of the terrorists dying. Besides, you never will be able to kill them all. Kill the ones that are out there now, continue to hunt them down and destroy them. Than exert influence to change the cultures which breed them. Why do you think we went to Iraq? It wasn't for WMDs, I don't think. More important. To create a free, peaceful, prospering Arab state to start changing the Arab culture. To provide another voice other than Madrassahs, to provide a different way of life than under an Islamic dictatorship.