I am a very opinionated guy; I was made that way.

I have big lips that flap immediately when I hear something I disagree with. I have ugly, hairy eyebrows that tweak in disgust when I see something I don’t like. I also have small ears that I can easily close, so as not to pay attention to anyone who disagrees with me on the basis of some selfish ideology. In the eyes of such people, I am perhaps a very loud, ugly, creature.

It is not me anyone should be scared of; there are more frightening creatures out there. For the sake of analogy, let’s call these creatures “beasts.”

Terrorists would fit this category. The London bombers and all those who have committed suicide attacks against civilians are quite simply beasts — man-made or otherwise. Also, people who don’t think the death of civilians in a war should be part of any legitimate debate about that war fit this category.

“You are talking like this isn’t a war,” these beasts usually say when confronted with the fact that people are dying.

They are beasts who in all their might rip apart civilians and lick their lips — not able to overcome their natural instinct to look out only for their survival and the survival of their “species.”

We all have our natural biases. We have different life experiences, and our opinions are based partly on those experiences. I have been in a conflict in Nigeria that was perhaps not as bad at the Iraq war, but people died all the same.

Riots had always gone on in Nigeria; however, it wasn’t until the day that my family and I had to leave Kano because we were scared for our lives that I realized people were dying. My opinions are formed in part because of the emotions I experienced as a 7 year old in the middle of a deadly conflict.

My opposition to the Iraq war is based partly on that experience. People have formed their opinions in many different ways — and it is understandable for them to disagree with such an opposition — but it isn’t understandable for anyone to do so carelessly and arrogantly without paying much attention to civilians that have died.

More than 3,000 people died on Sept. 11, and more than 50 people died in the terrorist attacks in London. These attacks got the sympathy and outcry they deserved from the American media. Aren’t the tens of thousands of people that have died in Iraq human beings too?

An examination in the mirror could show a person’s beastly features. If a person’s eyebrows tweak in ridicule of the thought that people are “sensitive” about children who are going to be displaced from their families and homes; if a person’s mouth begins to expand in anger when they hear people mention dead Iraqi civilians; perhaps they are looking at a beast.

The question of whether the war in Iraq is a legitimate way to fight terrorism is one that can and should be debated by fair-minded people everywhere. People can disagree or agree on such an issue, because terrorism is a very complex problem with no simple answer.

I would personally admit that I have been wrong on some aspects of this debate.

In my mind, though, one issue isn’t as problematic. Anyone who advocates violence as a way for resolving conflict, but doesn’t give much thought to innocent people who would die or have died as a result of such actions is a beastly creature.

Everyone should be afraid of such people — much like people are scared of terrorists.