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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.

The two jus ad bellum criteria from the Just War handout that I think are the most significant are just cause and right intention. I believe that the just cause is significant because it says “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”. This means that you can’t go to war just because someone took something from you or because you want to get even; in order to be just you have to go to war because lives are in danger and your intention is to protect them. This is a higher level issue because many people could be seriously injured. The right intention criterion is also significant. It says “force may be used only in a truly just cause and solely for that purpose - correcting a suffered wrong is considered a right intention, while material gain or maintaining economies is not”. This meant that a war is not just if you’re just in it to gain land and to gain financially. The impact again has to be on humans. In my opinion, the two most significant jus in bello criteria are proportionality and military necessity. Proportionality says that “Just war conduct should be governed by the principle of proportionality. 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 (principle of proportionality)”. This means that you need to only do what’s mandatory and necessary and no more. This criterion is significant because it tells us that if we do something in war that is not mandatory, it is excessive and not right, as it would not just accomplish a goal, it would result in more harm to individuals than they deserve. The military necessity criterion says “Just war conduct should be governed by the principle of minimum force. An attack or action must be intended to help in military defeat of the enemy, it must be an attack of a military objective, and the harm caused to civilians or civilian property must be proportional and not excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated. This principle is meant to limit excessive and unnecessary death and destruction”. This means that countries should only do what is necessary for their people and for the military. Similar to the principle of proportionality, it says that a just action is only enough to meet a military goal and no more. This means there is a right way to fight and a wrong way.  Of the wars we studied, the most just one in my opinion was in Panama. Americans were being held hostage because certain people in Panama wanted us to leave their country. In order to protect our citizens it was a requirement that we became involved. Using the jus ad bellum criteria, this act would fall under ‘just cause’ because it states that “…innocent life must be in imminent danger and intervention must be to protect life”. Another reason the U.S. became involved in this war was to prevent the spread of drugs. This action would fall under the ‘right intention’ criteria; the U.S. didn’t go in just to gain economically; we went to war because our citizens were in danger, so we were wronged. The ‘last resort’ criterion also applies because when they were threatening our people, we tried to find ways to please them, but they wouldn’t accept our offers; as a final option, the U.S. went to war. A second war that I thought was just was the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. The main reason the U.S. got involved was because we wanted to stop the Chinese from trying to destroy westernization. In China the Boxers had gone as far as to burn down Christian Churches and foreign businesses. Because of this we felt that it was necessary to take action to protect our rights and civilians. The jus ad bellum criterion that applies is ‘just cause’; our way of life and citizens were being threatened. A jus in bello criteria that applies to the Boxer Rebellion is military necessity. It was a military necessity because they were harming innocent civilians and in this criteria states “the harm caused by civilians or civilian property must be proportional and not excessive;” the actions taken were exactly that. The U.S. only did what was necessary for military advantage. Another small war that I believe was just was the Vietnam War. The main reason we became involved was because we wanted to prevent the spread of communism. The U.S. was afraid that the domino theory would apply and to keep communism from spreading, we went in with armed forces and a “public relations” system. The jus ad bellum criterion that applies to this action is just cause; the U.S. became involved to protect our people and country, even though the threat was not a direct one.  Of the three wars I chose, I believe that the most just one was in Panama. I believe this because more just war criteria supported what we did. I believe our actions were completely necessary. The second most just war of the three would be the Boxer Rebellion. This is because both jus ad bellum and jus in bello criteria supported our actions. However, this is fewer than the number that supported the war in Panama. The Vietnam War was my third choice as only the just war criteria said that the U.S. did the right thing.

<span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13pt; text-align: center;">Work cited: <span style="color: #404040; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 13pt;">Criteria for a Just War, “War”, Stanford University 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 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, no evidence is cited to support your claims

Rank the three small wars and explain why one war is more just than the other two, no evidence is offered but your reasoning is focused and persuasive

Explain why the __second__ choice fell short compared to the __first__ choice but is more just than the __third__ choice, listed, a general comparison is offered

Organize you writing in extended power paragraphs, competently used but you do not credit the source of your information

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

Cite evidence __internally__ and in a Works Cited. WC show one source--you were expected to cite your classmates' research; you include no internal citations