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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.

Comparison Essay: How Just Were the U.S.'s Small Wars? The United States has been and is currently still involved in multiple small wars around the world, and people have determined that some of the involvements were more just then others based on two criteria’s: Jus ad bellum and jus in bello. Overall, the majority of the wars we looked as a class seemed to fall into the jus ad bellum categories of just cause and right intention as well as the jus in Bello categories of military necessity and distinction. These categories best describe the majority of the United States’ small wars, including The War in Bosnia- Herzegovina, The Kosovo Conflict, and the war in The Dominican Republic, because the reasons for entering and fighting usually was to “protect life. . . correct a grave and public evil. . . [or to] correct a suffered wrong” (Just war Criteria handout- Stanford University), while at the same time minimizing “harm caused to civilians or civilian property” (Just war Criteria Handout). Based on these criteria, The War in Bosnia- Herzegovina, The Kosovo Conflict and the war in The Dominican Republic were just wars by different yet similar standards.

Two reasons to go to war, or just ad bellum, were just cause and right intention. For the most part, the U.S. became involved in small wars to protect lives and to correct public evils. In April 1992 when the U.S. became involved in the War in Bosnia- Herzegovina, there was just cause and right intention for the U.S. to become involved because, according to Michael M. and Shea S. Wiki page, “The U.S. entered with the right intention of saving the lives of those being abused by the [Serbians] and had the just cause of saving innocent [Bosnian] lives”. The U.S. involvement was primarily based on the genocide convention a few years back that determined genocides should no longer be allowed to occur, which is what they saw taking place in Bosnia- Herzegovina, so the U.S. entered this war to correct a grave public evil. Also, the U.S. involvement in The Kosovo Conflict fits into the categories of just cause and right intention because the conflict, between the Serbians and the Albanians, involved the Serbian’s trying to take back land controlled by the Albanians, with many innocent lives being at risk. Based on Katie Van W. and Graham D. wiki page, NATO’s “involvement was needed because the Albanian’s human rights were being taken away” and there was mass killings taking place. This is right intention because the U.S. was correcting a suffered wrong- killing of Albanians- and just cause because the U.S. was protecting life. A third war that fits the just ad bellum criteria is the war in the Dominican Republic which falls into the category of right intention. Ben C. and Jill W. state on their Wiki page that the “Dominican Republic had a weak central government, so [the U.S.] figured going in could help stabilize [it]”, while at the same time ending the spread of communism. This is right intention because the goals of the U.S. were to help the Dominican Republic with their government and to make life better for the people living there.

After entering a war, the next step is to present yourself, or jus in bello, which in these three wars, typically involved methods of military necessity and distinction. This means that the U.S. would enter a war with a target in mind, while at the same time keeping military advantage and civilian deaths proportional. The War in Bosnia- Herzegovina fits into the jus in bello category of distinction because the “goal of this war was to end the genocide against the Bosnia capital of Sarajevo directed by the Serbian forces” (Michael M. and Shea S.) while at the same time protecting the good people of Bosnia. In the end, a peace treaty was signed between Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia ending fighting, which was one of the main goals of U.S. involvement, in the region satisfying the much supporting American public. Next, The Kosovo Conflict was a war of military necessity because the U.S., under George H.W. Bush, became involved in the conflict in order to end the killing of innocent Albanians who “Americans [believed they] should assist in any way that they could” (Katie Van W. and Graham D.). All attacks made by the U.S. were of military necessity and meant to help keep the Albanians safe, with minimal casualties, while at the same time using military force to defeat the enemy. Finally, the war in The Dominican Republic was a war of distinction because the war was directed towards those in favor of communism, not civilians who were noncommunist; The U.S. had recently assassinated the Republic’s formal dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, and now the U.S. was “concerned that the Republic would turn communist under Cuban influences” (Jill W. and Ben C.). In the End, the U.S. achieved their goal of preventing the spread of the communism into the republic with support from most American Citizens.

Out of the three wars: The War in Bosnia- Herzegovina, The Kosovo Conflict, and the war in The Dominican Republic, I would describe The War in Bosnia- Herzegovina to be the most just, followed closely by The Kosovo Conflict and lastly the war in The Dominican Republic. The justness of a war comes from reason of entrance, how military acted, and also the amount of public support behind the involvement. First, I find The War in Bosnia- Herzegovina to be superior over the other two wars because this conflict was home to genocide, which, according to Michal M. and Shea S.’s Wiki page, the U.S. agreed to never let occur again. With this in mind, the U.S. had the most reason to become involved in this war because the genocide was not a conflict which could be solved easily without outsider involvement while the other two wars had a better chance of being solved without the help of outsiders. Second, I find The Kosovo Conflict to be slightly less just than The War in Bosnia- Herzegovina yet still more just than the war in The Dominican Republic because the war was, according to Katie Van W. and Graham D. Wiki page, initially sparked when the Serbian government wanted to take back land controlled by the Albanians. Based on the fact that the war was initially a land dispute, it should not have been of U.S concern, but since there were mass killings taking place and the citizens of the U.S. were for going in and helping the Albanians, the war was just. Lastly, I find the war in The Dominican Republic to be the least just of the three because U.S. involvement, as said by Jill W. and Ben C. in their Wiki post, was a matter of preventing the spread of communism as well as helping to stabilize the government. I find this involvement to be the least just because the matter was more politically based and could have been solved over time by The Dominican Republic itself; this said, the U.S. involvement was not a total waste because the government was able to be stabilized relatively quickly with the assistance of the U.S.

__Work Cited:__

Jill W. and Ben C. Small wars: Dominican Republic. Buchholtz/ Sidor American Studies. www.wikispaces.com.

Katie Van W. and Graham D. Small wars: The Kosovo Conflict. Buchholtz/ Sidor American Studies. www.wikispaces.com.

Michael M. and Shea S. Small wars: War in Bosnia- Herzegovina. Buchholtz/ Sidor American Studies. www.wikispaces.com. 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 clarify and support your claims

Rank the three small wars and explain why one war is more just than the other two, evidence and reasoning 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, competently used

Identify the source and establish its credibility with an appositive phrase, sources credited

Cite evidence __internally__ and in a Works Cited. mostly correct, need date created and visited

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