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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.

Based off of the criteria for Jus ad bellum, or the right to go to war, I selected just cause and right intention because those were two qualities that I noticed were portrayed throughout America’s small wars. From the Jus in bello criteria I chose distinction and proportionality because they both represent Americas right conduct within war. The Boxer Rebellion, Grenada, and Rwanda are three American small wars that represent the just war criteria to some extent. Each of these wars includes the just war criteria that I will explain starting with the most just war, The Boxer Rebellion, and ending with the least just war, Rwanda.

The Boxer Rebellion, Grenada, and Rwanda are the three small wars that represent just cause: entering a war in order to save or protect innocent lives, and right intention: entering a war to correct a suffered wrong. The Boxer Rebellion is most just because the United States entered this war in order to prevent the Boxers from eliminating all western ideas and life styles. From Lexie and Brooks' timeline topic they stated, "Boxers created an uprising to get rid of any and all western ideas. They targeted foreigners, missionaries, priests, and Chinese citizens who had converted to Christianity" (Wert, Hal). The U.S went into China with the right intention to correct a suffered wrong, the main goal was to save all of the innocent westerners from being murdered by the Boxers and Imperial troops. Grenada had a just cause and right intention as well because the United States got involved in order to protect American students in danger in Grenada.“1,000 American students were believed to be in danger (ABC-CLIO 1). These students were on the island of Grenada at the time and Ronald Regan decided to launch the attack in order to protect them” (Lucas and Elena’s timeline topic). There is also a just cause and right intention seen in Rwanda because the United States’ intention was to enforce peace by entering a diplomatic negotiations and humanitarian group. “No American military forces were brought into Rwanda, the U.S. still helped to resolve the conflict by committing themselves to “diplomatic negotiations and humanitarian relief in non-vital interest trouble spots” (Melady, Columbia International Affairs Online).

These three wars also include the aspects from the Jus in bello criteria, distinction: acts of war directed at the enemy, and proportionality: avoid massacre and over killing. In the Boxer Rebellion it was clear that the Boxers and Imperial troops were the enemy and all military aggression was towards them, not civilians. “When the imperial army joined in the battle against westerners in China, it was time for Japan, Russia, Great Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary to come to the rescue of their citizens in China” (Fontenoy, Paul E.)-Brooks and Lexie’s timeline topic. The war in Grenada was another war with a distinct view of the enemy, the Cubans posing threats to Americans. “Cuban troops and construction workers were present on the island, building an airport which it was feared would be used for military purposes”(Lucas and Elena’s timeline topic).There was no killing of civilians with the goal to save the endangered American students. Although the United States never entered Rwanda these two criteria points can be seen by how the United States didn’t kill anyone and that the main focus was to create peace between the Hutus and the Tutsis. Max and Stacy stated, “America used their forces to help enforce peace between the Hutus and Tutsis as Rwanda worked to became more stable”.

The Boxer Rebellion is more just than the other two wars because the entire focus of the operation was to save all of the innocent foreigners and westerners that were being killed by the Boxers because of their western ways. The war in Grenada is not as superior as the Boxer Rebellion because there were two parts of the mission. The first and just reason was to save all of the endangered American Students, while the second part was to go and stop the building of an airport that was //thought// to be used against us some way in the future. Although this war is not as just as the first, it is still more just than the war in Rwanda. Grenada is more just than this war because the United States actually entered the country in order to save lives and make a difference, while in Rwanda the United States sat by and let killing go on. The United States had just reasons about the situation, but chose to take a different approach by joining a negotiations group rather than entering the country where lives could have been saved.


 * RUBRIC: A quality essay will **
 * • **** Explain why you selected the two jus ad bellum and the two jus in bello the criteria, **** criteria generally identified and explained **
 * •Use the __four__ criteria to analyze why the three small wars are "just wars", **** criteria used **
 * •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, **** well reasoned analysis **
 * •Explain why the __second__ choice fell short compared to the __first__ choice but is more just than the __third__ choice, **** clear basis for comparison offered without citing evidence **
 * •Organize you writing in ** **extended power paragraphs****,** ** evidence not always organised in power paragraphs --you often omit the fourth sentence explaining how the evidence give the thesis authority **
 * •Identify the source and establish its ** **credibility** **with an appositive phrase,** ** done when you credit a source--not in last paragraph **
 * •Cite evidence __internally__ and in a Works Cited. **** internal citation have some formatting errors; WC omitted **