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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.

How Just Were the U.S. Small Wars?

America has fought many small wars, but a question that has had a lot of controversy is that, were these wars just? One war that fit the criteria of a just war was the Spanish-American War. The two wars that didn’t meet the criteria as well was the Boxer Rebellion, and the Persian Gulf War. To this question, the following criteria must be used. Jus ad bellum and jus in bello. Out of the jus ad bellum I will use just cause and right intention and for jus in bello I will use military necessity and proportionality.

The reason why I thought that the Spanish American war was a just war, is in just cause part in the jus ad bellum it states “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”. The reason that this is a just cause is because Spain was attempting to take independence away from Cuba and we thought that it was important for Cuba to have its independence. Also in the jus ad bellum it says that in order for a war to be just there must be a right intention, saying that “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”. Although Cuba did not suffer, we did not fight Spain for material gain or to maintain economies, rather we went to help them and we wanted Cuba to still have their independence. In the jus in bello military necessity section we can see that “ an attack or action must be intended to help the military defeat the enemy, it must be an attack on a military objective”. This means that we can only attack if it can help the military defeat its enemy. In Cuba’s case we needed to help because of the weakened government. Also in the jus in bello proportionality section it says that “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”. This segment means that we cannot attack if we know of the amount of civilians that would be harmed. If the number is to excessive than we cannot attack. These criteria help tell why the Spanish American War was a just war.

The Boxer Rebellion does fit under the just cause because we were punishing those who had been killing others for their beliefs, but we went there mainly to maintain our trade with China. So we joined “Eight-Nation alliance” (Brooks/Lexie) with Japan, Russia, Great Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary who had also shared our thoughts on the boxers. They had a right intention but was only really in this war so they could keep their trade with China, as well as marinating economies and material gain making this aspect not just. In the Persian Gulf War, we see the same thing with Kuwait and their oil reserves. We were allies with them so we helped them fight, but we only wanted to maintain our oil import. Under the jus ad bellum criteria we would see that this is not just cause or right intention solely because we were there to protect our oil. Although we did not intend to harm civilians. Although these wars could be just we went to fight in order to have material gain or maintain economies. Therefore these wars in my opinion are not just.

In the ranking we can clearly see that the Spanish American War was the most just out of the Boxer Rebellion and the Persian Gulf War. The reason that this is, is because we went to Cuba to help and not for material gain or to maintain economies. Where we went to China for our trade benefits and we helped Kuwait in order to keep our oil. So in the ranking in the most just to least just, the wars would go Spanish American war, to Boxer Rebellion, to Persian Gulf War. We can see that these wars can be hard to order because these wars also can’t be considered unjust too, but we can rank them from most just to least. There were just a few factors that made one less just than the other.

RUBRIC: A quality essay will

Explain why you selected the two jus ad bellum and the two jus in bello the criteria, reasons for selecting the criteria is not offered

Use the __four__ criteria to analyze why the three small wars are "just wars", a criteria is listed rather than analyzed

Support your analysis of each war with evidence from the Small Wars Wiki, evidence not always used or credited to source

Rank the three small wars and explain why one war is more just than the other two, supporting evidence not 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, not all paragraphs are organized this way

Identify the source and establish its credibility with an appositive phrase, not done for all 3 wars; sources not credited

Cite evidence __internally__ and in a Works Cited. many factual statements not credited; no works cited

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