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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.

Were The Small Wars Just Wars? When I was looking through the wars to see which ones were just and which weren't, I used criteria from the //Jus Ad Bellum// and from the //Jus in Bello// to support why or why not I thought a certain war was just. For the Jus Ad Bellum section I found that the most common criteria in the small wars were __Right Intention__ and __Just Cause__. Just cause means "The reason for going to war needs to be just and cannot therefore be solely for recapturing things takenor punishing people who have done wrong; innocent life must be in imminent danger and intervention must be to protect life.."(Criteria For A Just War.) Right Intention means that "force may be used only in a truly just cause and soley for that purpose- correcting a suffered wrong is considered a right intention, while material gain or maintaining economies is not"(Criteria For A Just War). For the Jus Ad Bellum criteria, I found that __Military Necessity__ and __Distinction__were the most common characteristics to determine if the war was just or not. Military Necessity means that "just war conduct should be governed by the principle of minimum force...this principle is meant to limit excessive and unnecessary death and destruction"(Criteria For A Just War). Distinction means "just war conduct should be governed by the principle of distinction. 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). In these next paragraphs I will talk about the wars of Grenada in 1983, The Haiti War in 1915, and the Spanish American War in 1948.

Out of these three wars, the war I found most just was the war in Grenada, which was in 1983. In this war, we followed the criteria for Jus Ad Bellum and Jus in Bello. The US went into Granada for a Right Intention. They went in because they felt threatened by the communist occupation, and because the people in Granada were being treated terribly. The main reason the US went in was because students and citizens felt threatened because people were being starved and assassinated for no reason. The reason the military was "just" in Grenada was because they followed the criteria of distinction. They didn't hurt any of the civilians in Grenada, they only went after the military and the communists. After all, the US was in there to help out the people of Grenada, so I doubt they would hurt them.

In the middle of just and unjust of the three wars I picked, lies the Spanish-American war of 1948. The Jus Ad Bellum criteria went __against__ just cause because the US went into Cuba trying to help them out, which wasn't even necessary. Max Boot said that the US didn't really have to go to war,and that the Cubans could have held off Spain's attempt for control on their own. This war was also unjust because a big part of America's reason for becoming a part of this war was to gain territory, which goes against right intention criteria. After looking at the actions of the military and political leaders in this war, I wouldn't say this war was just in the Jus In Bello criteria either. The Military went against Military Necessity, because they weren't really necessary... The soldiers went in acting like they were just there to help out, when really all they were concerned with was Manifest Destiny.

The least just out of all the wars I looked at was by far, the war in Haiti which lasted from 1915 until 1934. At the beginning of the war, it seemed like the US went in to Haiti, to go with Jus Ad Bellum criteria and following the Just Cause criteria, but that deffinately was not the case. They just wanted power in Haiti, which goes against right intention. The US started out in Haiti by just trying to help them out, and went too far when they got sick of them being there and started to rebel. The US ended up killing rebels! The Jus in bello for Haiti went against Distinction. I do not think this war was just at all vecause the US started to go against Distinciton and kill civilians, which is just not right.

After reviewing the Jus Ad Bellum and Jus In Bello criteria, I decided that the war in Grenada was the most just war, the Spanish-American war in between, and the war in Haiti the least just. The war in Grenada was by far the most just because the US didn't do anything big to screw up- They went in, helped out the people, and got out. The Spanish American war wasn't completely unjust, the US wanting to help, but they were truely in it for Manifest Destiny, which makes it more unjust than the war in Grenada. Lastly, the Haiti war was the least just because the US ended up killing civilians in the country that they were trying to help, which will never be just. After looking through examples of wars and learning about Jus Ad Bellum and Jus In Bello I learned that America has done a lot of things wrong, but then again quite a few things right. I also learned how to learn from our history to make today's wars more just.

Works Cited:

Criteria For A Just War (WS from Sidor) Annie Trexler and Zach Owen's Wiki Page on Haiti Reyna Lusson and Bobby Brunner's Wiki Page on the Spanish American War Elena Medich and Lucas Sencio's Wiki Page on Grenada.
 * 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", **** criteria used to analyze the wars **
 * •Support your analysis of each war with evidence from the Small Wars Wiki, **** evidence used to support your claims--you must credit your sources **
 * •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, **** meaningful comparison offered **
 * •Organize you writing in ** **extended power paragraphs****,** ** competently used **
 * •Identify the source and establish its ** **credibility** **with an appositive phrase,** ** not done **
 * •Cite evidence __internally__ and in a Works Cited. **** not done; WC has many formatting omissions **