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Comparison Essay: How Just Were the U.S.’s Small Wars?

The Just War Theory has two parts. Study the Just War handout and select the two most significant criteria for **//jus ad bellum//** and two most significant criteria for **//jus in bello//**. With these criteria in mind, select one war from each of your three tables that best meets these criteria. In the essay, you will analyze, compare and rank these three wars.

Write an essay that compares the three small wars and analyzes how well all three meet the four criteria that you believe are most important. Based on this comparison, select the __"most just"__ of the three wars and explain the reasons for the choice. Also, explain why your __second choice__ fell short and were not as just as your __first choice__ but is more just than your __third choice__.

RUBRIC: A quality essay will Explain why you selected **jus ad bellum** and **jus in bello** the criteria, Use the __four__ criteria to analyze why the three small wars are "just wars", Support your analysis of each war with evidence from the Small Wars Wiki, Rank the three small wars and explain why one war is more just than the other two, Explain why the __second__ choice fell short compared to the __first__ choice but is more just than the __third__ choice, Organize you writing in extended power paragraphs, Identify the source and establish its credibility with an appositive phrase, Cite evidence __internally__ and in a Works Cited.

POST JUST WAR ESSAY HERE

Under the jus ad bellum criteria I will be using the just cause property and the right intention property, and under the jus in bello criteria, I will be using the distinction property and the military necessity property to compare the three small wars I believe were the most just. These four properties of the jus ad bellum and the jus in bello criteria were the four I believe are the most important to distinct whether or not the war was just, and also the four that were most present in my research. The three small wars I am going to compare with the four properties are the Somalia War, the Boxer Rebellion and lastly the War in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The first two criteria I will be using to determine a just war are the just cause and the right intention under the jus ad bellum. The just cause property states that innocent life must be in imminent danger, and intervention must be to protect life. The right intention property under the jus ad bellum states that in order for a war to be just they must be correcting a suffered wrong. The first war I will be comparing is the Somalia War.The United States intervened in the country of Somalia in 1992 because they were part of a UN mission to feed a nation of innocent starving people (Huereman and Perry). This war shows that the US operated under the Just Cause and Right intention property. The US were saving innocent lives from starvation and also correcting a suffered wrong in the Somalian governement. The Somalia War had all of the characteristics of a just war. Another war, The Boxer Rebellion was fought in China from 1899-1901. The Boxer's were a group of Chinese citizens that were against the spread of Western ideas. The Boxer's went as far as "burning Christian churches and foreign embassies" (Mason and Morrison) including the United States'. The US intervened in the Boxer Rebellion to save their citizens and also to correct the suffered wrong of the Boxer's. The reasons for US involvement make the Boxer Rebellion follow the just cause and right intention property, making it a just war. The last war is the War in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In 1991, the Serbs were committing a genocide, while they were "ethnic cleansing" (Stiebler and Mitiska) and murdering non-Serbs while trying to gain territory throughout Europe. The reasons for US involvement follow the just cause and right intention property, because the US was attempting to save the innocent lives that the Serbs were "ethnic cleansing" and also they were trying to correct the suffered wrong of the wars, making this war greatly just.

The second two criteria I will be using to determine the conduct of the soldiers in the three wars are distinction and military necessity under the jus in bello. The distinction property states to basically just kill the enemy and not innocent civilians in order for the war to be just. The military necessity property states to not do anything you don't need to, for example: unnecessary death. The military conduct in the Somalia War follow the distinction and military necessity properties. American soldiers in Somalia's main goal was to help feed the starving, so instead of killing innocent civilians we were trying to help them (Huereman and Perry).That follows the property of distinction, because we were not killing civilians, we were killing the Somalians who would not provide food for these innocent civilians. Also in Somalia, US soldiers contained themselves and did not do any unnecessary killing, which follows the military necessity property. The next war I will be comparing is The Boxer Rebellion. When the US got involved in 1900, our military conduct would be considered just. The US was not killing innocent civilians but rather the Boxer's. Quite frankly the US was attempting to save it's own citizens that were in China at the time (Mason and Morrison). Under the distinction property, the military conduct of our soldiers in China would have to be considered just, because we were killing the enemy, not innocent civilians. Also in China, there was no unnecessary killing, or overkill, or anything along that nature. The US was quick in and out, attempting to save their own citizens from the ludicrous Boxer's. With that, the US's military conduct in China would have to be considered just under both the distinction property and military necessity under the jus in bello criteria. The last small-war I'm going to compare is the War in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The military conduct during this war was just. American and NATO troops both did their job in ending this horrific genocide, and the US did it with distinction. They did not kill innocent civilians but rather the Serbs who were committing the genocide, which follows the property of distinction. The US was not killing innocent civilians, they were actually saving the Bosnian Muslims from being murdered (Stiebler and Mitiska). Also, the US was controlled throughout the war, not doing killing anyone that did not need to be killed, which makes the War in Bosnia-Herzegovina just, by both the distinction property and the military necessity property.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">After comparing the three small wars, the Somalia War, The Boxer Rebellion, and the War in Bosnia-Herzegovina, I have came to the conclusion that the War in Bosnia-Herzegovina is the most just. Even though in the other 2 wars innocent people were in imminent danger, the War in Bosnia-Herzegovina was a complete genocide, with the Serbs killing "millions of people by the end of the war" (Steibler and Mitiska). The just cause and right intention property in the jus ad bellum criteria are more just in this war than the other two. Also, even though all three of the wars were all fairly similar in the distinction and military necessity property of the jus in bello, this war beats out the other two in this category to be the most just. The second most just I believe was The Boxer Rebellion. In my perspective, this war slightly beats out the Somalia War because US lives were in danger during The Boxer Rebellion. The jus ad bellum and the jus in bello criteria in The Boxer Rebellion are at a slight edge than that of the Somalia War because of the US citizens that were in danger. Though the Somalia War was horrific and many innocent Somalian lives were in danger, I believe that the jus ad bellum and the jus in bello criteria were not as strong as the War in Bosnia-Herzegovina and The Boxer Rebellion because it was not a full genocide and US lives were not in danger at the start. With little knowledge of what really happened in Mogadishu during Black Hawk Down, though I believe we conducted ourselves well, I cannot say that the way we conducted ourselves the same way we did in the two other small-wars.


 * RUBRIC: A quality essay will **


 * • **** Explain why you selected the two jus ad bellum and the two jus in bello the criteria, **** criteria identified and explained **


 * •Use the __four__ criteria to analyze why the three small wars are "just wars", **** criteria used to analyze the wars **


 * •Support your analysis of each war with evidence from the Small Wars Wiki, **** evidence used well to support your claims **


 * •Rank the three small wars and explain why one war is more just than the other two, **** evidence and reasoning are clear **


 * •Explain why the __second__ choice fell short compared to the __first__ choice but is more just than the __third__ choice, **** insightful, well-reasoned comparison offered **


 * •Organize you writing in ** **extended power paragraphs****,** ** competently used **


 * •Identify the source and establish its ** **credibility** **with an appositive phrase,** ** done clearly **


 * •Cite evidence __internally__ and in a Works Cited. **** internal citation mostly correct; WC omitted **