I was a lot happier before I heard of James Carroll. This column is clever rhetorically, but its points are all unpersuasive, and many are lies. Example:

Did war planners not know that that mass [sic] of people would face death, maiming, homelessness well before the leading clique is cornered? Does it help a bereaved Iraqi family to be told its anguish is ''collateral?''

Of course they did. But what Carroll ignores, and what makes him so disgusting is his implication that had we just left Saddam alone, all those people would be alive and happy. What does he say about the millions who have died in Saddam's wars? Or, to bring it down to a manageable level, the people of Halabja, or the children in that prison for kids who hadn't joined the Ba'ath version of the Hitler Youth? It's just fine if a living breathing version of Big Brother tries to bring 1984 to reality, as long as we can turn our backs and pretend we're not involved.

Here's a question, "Should the Boston Globe waste another inch of newsprint or another drop of ink on the heinous ideas of this American Ba'athist?" The answer is no.