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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 I picked the War in Bosnia, the Rwandan war, and Grenada because they seemed like the most just wars out of all of the ones I researched. These wars all had right intentions and a just cause, which fits the criteria for jus ad bellum. For jus in bello I selected distinction and military necessity because they seemed to fit all three wars fairly well. Each of these three wars fits the criteria of the two topics I picked for both jus in bello and jus ad bellum.

The War in Bosnia - Herzegovina was a struggle that America needed to get involved with. In 1992-1995 Serbians went through Bosnia and Herzegovina and swept the country clean of any non-Serbs, and as America we felt it was our duty to go over there and help, especially “after the holocaust [when] the US and other members of the UN, signed the Genocide Convention as a way to promise to never let genocide happen again” (Power). It is not fair to have innocent people get slaughtered because they are not all a carbon copy of each other. America sent in 20,000 peacekeepers into the country out of 60,000 from NATO (wiki page). They had to do this because hundreds of thousands of people were being brutally killed which makes this a just cause. America went in with right intentions, which was to save the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina from genocide. It also fits the military necessity category because those countries could not have resolved this conflict with out the help of NATO. The war was distinct because the US was targeting the Serbian forces, saving the civilians from those forces. The US went in to help save these innocent people from genocide because it was inhumane not to.

The idea of the Rwandan war was just, but the way we executed it was not the best. President Bill Clinton said that our reason for not sending military troops over there was because we owed too much money to the UN, and it was too dangerous to go in to Rwanda (Power, 341). All wars are dangerous which leads me to believe that there is a bigger issue beyond this, but all in all the idea of the war fits the criteria for right intentions and just cause because the idea was to save innocent civilians lives. While it does not fit military necessity, because no military personnel were sent over, the war does fit distinction because the war was directed towards getting rid of the oppressive Hutu rebels (wiki page). The Rwandan war was definitely a just war.

The war in Granada, also know as operation Urgent Fury, was just because America went into Grenada to save 1000 U.S. students, who Ronald Reagan believed were in danger (ABC-CLIO). This part of the war was just because it had just cause and the right intentions of going into Grenada to save civilians, and it fits distinction and military necessity because they sent troops over and they aimed to save the students. But the other part to this war is not entirely just; the US wanted to overthrow the Marxist and unstable government that Cuba had left it with, which also showed good intentions and just cause. Granada was an ally to the US while Cuba was not (the war in Granada took place during the Cold War). This led the US to believe that Cuba would make all South Pacific waters inaccessible to them (wiki page). While getting rid of the communist government and saving the students was good the United States was not completely selfless; they were also involved in this war to save their ability to trade.

All three of these wars were just, but I believe that the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina was the most just because the US actually went into the country, and with good intentions. While the idea of going into Rwanda to rescue millions of innocent civilians from genocide seemed noble, America just stayed on the sidelines because it was “too dangerous”, which caused me to rank this war as the second most just war instead of first. Granada fits all of the criteria, but since one of the main reasons to make sure trade was available at all times, this war does not have the best intentions of the three. These are the most just wars I have researched.

“Ronald Reagan: Address to the Nation on Events in Lebanon and Grenada (1983).” World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC- CLIO, 2011.

Power, Samantha. A Problem From Hell. N.p.: Perennial-HarperCollins Publisher, n.d. Print

R., Max & G., Stacy (n.d.). Rwandan genocide. Retrieved from Wikispaces database.

S., Shea & M., Michael (n.d.). War in Bosnia - Herzegovina. Retrieved from Wikispaces database.

M., Elena & S. Lucas (n.d.). Grenada. Retrieved from Wikispaces database. 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", attempts to use criteria to analyze the wars

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

Rank the three small wars and explain why one war is more just than the other two, little evidence and reasoning is not always clear

Explain why the __second__ choice fell short compared to the __first__ choice but is more just than the __third__ choice, listed with sweeping class and no supporting evidence

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

Cite evidence __internally__ and in a Works Cited. not all evidence cited correctly; some WC formatting errors

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