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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

Gigi Furlong American Studies December 7, 2008


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

In the just war theory there are two sets of criteria, Jus as bellum, the right to go to war, and Jus in bello, right conduct within war. The two criteria I felt most strong about in Jus ad bellum are "Just cause" and "Right intention". Just cause is basically saying the reason for going to war needs to be just and cannot therefore be solely for recapturing things taken or punishing people who have done wrong; innocent life must be in imminent danger and intervention must be to protect life. Right intention is when force may be used only in a truly just cause and solely for that purpose - connecting a suffered wrong is considered a light intention, while material gain or maintaining economies is not. I chose just cause and right intention because they strongly reflect America’s way of war and are good, fair reasons to engage in war. The two criteria I chose from Jus in bello are "distinction" and "proportionality". Distinction is when you kill the enemy and not innocent civilians and proportionality is when you don't "over kill" and create a massacre. I chose these two criteria because I feel as if these are fair, decent ways to "fight" and right conduct within war. The boxer rebellion, War in Bosnia Herzegovina, and Panama all reflect the Jus ad bellum and Jus in bello to some extent. I will analyze these three small wars in the lenses of the two criteria from Jus ad bellum and the two criteria from Jus in bello.

The three small wars meet the two criteria within Jus as bellum, which are "right intentions" and "just cause". Right intention meaning you are going to war for a valid reason and not just for material gain. Just cause is the second criteria, which is saying you go to war not to punish or kill innocent civilians but that the purpose of engaging in war is for example, to protect innocent lives. The Boxer rebellion fits a just war under the criteria of Jus ad bellum because the United States entered the war for the "right intention" and "just cause" because some of the citizens in China, known as the boxers had trouble accepting the fact that westernization was occurring in their country and created an uprising to get rid of any and all western ideas (Wert, Hal). Boxers committed serious crimes targeting foreigners, missionaries, priests, and innocent citizens and executing any Chinese citizen who converted to Christianity, priests and missionaries involved in the process. The United States had every reason to engage in this small war because once the imperial army joined in the battle against westerners, it was time for someone to go over and help protect those innocent civilians who were being executed (Boxer Rebellion wiki page). Under the just cause criteria it states that "innocent life must be in imminent danger and intervention must be to protect life (Criteria for a Just War)." and that is exactly why we got involved in this war, to protect those innocent civilians who were being executed because of their conversion to Christianity. We also went there for the right intention, to correct what the Boxers were doing, “correcting a suffered wrong is considered a right intention (Criteria for a Just War)." The war of Grenada was also a just war because the United States once again engaged in this war because of the right intention and just cause. The island of Grenada was being overrun by communists, and the U.S. government found that the Cubans in Grenada were "building a 10,00-foot airstrip (PBS) and this made President Reagan even more concerned. The U.S. military was sent to overthrow the communist government being settled in a socialist island. Ronald Reagan decided to launch an attack in order to protect them (Grenada wiki page). The United States followed both criteria, just cause and right intention, under Jus ad bellum in this case because they engaged in this war to protect those who were in imminent danger and their lives which were at risk due to the communist movement. This leads me to my next point; the U.S. had the right intention of going over, to correct the communist government which was being ruled by Cubans in the island of Grenada, originally a socialist island. Another small war that falls under the criteria for a just war is the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. During the war, The Serbs and the Serbian-dominated Yugoslav Army were under the control of their Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, incited a war with aggression to spread Serbian control which wouldn’t be resolved until 1995 (Encyclopedia Britannica).Serb forces swept through much of Bosnia and Herzegovina, systematically brutalizing and expelling non-Serbs, particularly Bosnian Muslims in a campaign of terror (War in Bosnia-Herzegovina wiki page).The U.S entered the war for the right intention by going in to end genocide that the Serbs were creating and entered just cause to save the innocent people being killed by the Serbs.

Following the criteria of a just war under Jus ad bellum, there is also a criterion under Jus in bello that must be met. Jus in bello is the right conduct within war and also directs how combatants are to act or should act. Two important criteria that fall under this category are, distinction, where the acts of war should be directed towards enemy combatants, and not towards non-combatants caught in circumstances they did not create (Criteria for a Just War), and proportionality, where an attack cannot be launched on a military objective in the knowledge that the incidental civilian injuries would be clearly excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage (Criteria for a Just War), basically you cant go in and "overkill" and create a massacre. Three small wars that meet these criteria are are the Boxer Rebellion, the war in Grenada, and the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Boxer rebellion is considered a just war because of the way the U.S. fought within the war. The U.S. fought with distinction by killing those only of the enemy and not the innocent lives who did not create the circumstance. We only killed those who belonged to the Boxer clan who were committing various crimes to innocent civilians in China. We also fought with proportionality because instead of killing all those involved in the conflict we killed the enemy and the enemy only, which were the Boxers meaning we didn’t "overkill". In the war in Grenada the U.S. also fought with distinction and proportionality making the war a just war too. We fought with distinction because instead of killing all of the islanders involved in the conflict we only killed the enemy and in this case it was the Cubans who were creating the air-lift and those who were running the communist government. The United States also fought with proportionality because again, instead of killing all those involved in the conflict, we only killed the few who were running the communist government and the Cubans creating the airlift. The war in Bosnia-Herzegovina was one of those in which were fought with distinction and proportionality as well. The U.S. fought with distinction by only killing the enemy involved in this case which happened to be the Serbs who created genocide to spread communist ideas and spread Serbian control as well. We also fought with proportionality, opposite of what the Serbs did, by only killing a select few of the Serbs and to be honest, we didn’t kill that many, we negotiated and made them sign a treaty saying that they will never create genocide again so you can say we stayed far away from "over killing" anyone. These three small wars are just wars because of the way they fall under the Jus in bello criteria through distinction and proportionality.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">In my opinion, I believe the following order is the correct sequence in which each war falls between most just and least just. The war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Grenada, and the Boxer Rebellion. The war in Bosnia-Herzegovina is the most just because I felt as if this was war was a war that we absolutely needed to get involved with and we went there for all the right reasons and also fought with fair tactics. The U.S. engaged in this war with the right intention to correct what the Serbs were doing, which was correcting the spread of Serbian ideas and communism, and to stop the genocide the Serbs created and also through just cause which was to protect innocent civilians being killed through the genocide. Both of these reasons why we got involved in this war fall under the criteria of Jus ad bellum in the categories of “just cause” and “right intention”. The U.S. also made this a just war based upon Jus in bello, the right conduct within war and also directs how combatants are to act or should act. We fought with distinction, meaning we didn’t go around killing anyone involved in the conflict but just by only killing the enemy which in this case were the Serbs who were committing these tremendous crimes. We also fought with proportionality because instead of creating another genocide, the U.S. only killed the select few who caused the circumstance and not those who weren’t directly involved. But really, did we seriously kill that much? No, instead of killing a bunch of Serbs, we made them sign a treaty saying they will never create genocide again and that was the end of the war. A war that was less just than the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina was the war in Grenada. It was less just because the conflict wasn’t that big of a threat and the lives of innocent civilians weren’t put at that much of a risk. Yes, there was a select few that were trying to run a communist government and that is a major threat, but we also didn’t know for sure if the creation of the airlift was going to cause great harm but we still went to protect those in danger. Which is a bigger deal? Innocent civilians being killed for no reason everyday by Serbs or civilians who could potentially be harmed by a creation an airlift? The U.S. government found that the Cubans in Grenada were "building a 10,00-foot airstrip (PBS) and this made President Reagan even more concerned (The war in Grenada wiki page). President Reagan didn’t exactly know what the airlift would be used for but decided it was better safe than sorry which leads me to believe that this war was less just than the war in Bosnia-Herezovgnia but more just than the Boxer Rebellion because the true reason for getting involved in the war was valid. My next opinion is that the Boxer Rebellion was the least just of the three wars because of the real reason the U.S. got involved. Yes, the U.S. engaged in the war for the right intention and through just cause as well a fighting within the right criteria of Jus in bello, distinction and proportionality, but really the U.S. got involved only to protect their trade with China. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif';">America had become a major world power, and was now moving away from agricultural labor, so America had become reliant on China to supply them with food and trade. The Boxer Rebellion was fought to keep US trade with China still available. If the US didn't fight in the Boxer Rebellion, it could be possible that our trade with them would have been eliminated (Boxer Rebellion wiki page). T <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">he U.S. joined the Eight Nation Alliance with <span style="color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif';">Japan, Russia, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary in which all supported China against the Boxers. The US joined the Eight-Nation Alliance because they did not want to see their trade with China crumble (Boxer rebellion wiki page). This statement proves they only joined the alliance to get on China’s good side so they could continue their trade. This reason for entering the war stood out to me and influenced my decision that this was the least just out of all the wars. In my opinion the wars on a scale from most just to least just go in the following order, the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Grenada, and the Boxer Rebellion.

S. Shea, and Michael M. “April 1992 - December 1995: War in Bosnia-Herzegovnia."//American Studies Wiki//. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2011. <http://buchholtzsidoramericanstudies.wikispaces.com/>.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif';">Works Cited **

M. Brooks, and Lexie M. "Fall1899 - September 7, 1901: Operation Boxer Rebellion."//American Studies Wiki//. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2011. <http://buchholtzsidoramericanstudies.wikispaces.com/>.

M. Elena, and Lucas S. "October 25, 1983 - December 15, 1983: Operation Urgent Fury."//American Studies Wiki//. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2011. <http://buchholtzsidoramericanstudies.wikispaces.com/>.

"War," Stanford University Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 07/28/05, [|http://plato.stanford.edu], 04/05/11

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 defined

Use the __four__ criteria to analyze why the three small wars are "just wars", use criteria to analyze the wars

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

Rank the three small wars and explain why one war is more just than the other two, evidence and reasoning offered

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, competently used

Identify the source and establish its credibility with an appositive phrase, not done for all sources

Cite evidence __internally__ and in a Works Cited. incorrect internal citations; WC is correct if web addresses are deleted

Please write with an academic voice, not in the first person.

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