Middle East Just War Analysis

It focuses on the state and international level of analysis to understand the rationality behind the war. Iraq posed an imminent and significant threat to the United States with its alleged weapons of mass destruction. The United States under the governing of the Bush Administration saw it fit to eliminate the threat while also striving to ensure a stable oil supply in the Persian Gulf. This first explanation coincides with the realist phenomenon of “security dilemma”, The United States saw Iraq compilation of weapons as a viable threat, but instead of building up their military in response to such threat, they decided to go to war. Although, the U.S. invasion does not follow the security dilemma to a tee. It can be argued that the United States acted as a unitary and rational force perusing their national interest which was to destabilize the weapons and ensure a sense of national security by launching a preemptive strike. By striking first the U.S. practice a form of asymmetric warfare which from a realist perspective The U.S. exercises a balance of power during the Iraq conflict. In order to balance power in the international system, the U.S. wanted to eliminate Iraq of their weapons since they posed too much of a threat against their own relative power and therefore were strong enough to dominate other states if possible. This philosophy explains the fundamental of realist

Lastly, the notion to hurt one’s enemy peoples to force their government into a complete surrender and to minimize the general loss of one’s own troops is immoral. Naturally, the typical ethical standards of war would not justify any use of dehumanization in order for a nation to supersede the other. The Japanese became dehumanized in the minds of American combatants and civilians. The process enabled greater cultural and physical differences between white Americans and Japanese than between the former and their European foes. In Michael Walzer's Just and Unjust Wars (1977), he defines “ the use of force by one nation against another is always wrong unless the latter has already forfeited its basic rights.” Walzer is clearly stating that wars; especially nuclear wars are unjust if they strip away basic civilian rights. In other words, they are ponds in a game of political and nuclear warfare.

In all of Human history, only 8% of that time has been completely at peace. From 150 million to 1 billion people in total have been killed by war. That’s 150 million families at least who have had their loved ones ripped from their grasp. This is far too many. War is unnecessary and barbaric. In “just and unjust war” by Howard Zinn the complexities of whether or not a war can be called just or unjust are debated. Peace can be achieved. the three crucial steps toward making world peace are education, open communication, and human rights laws must be strictly enforced.

The function of the military forces for the United States has had no choice but to evolve as wars wax and wane. As the rise of militant terrorist groups became a threat to the United States and its allies, the armed forces of the United States were deployed by the President to countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq. Instability in these countries threatened bordering allies, and after September 11, 2001, the threat was brought to U.S. soil. Each president from Clinton to Obama has had to shape the policy of how the armed forces fit into civil-military policies abroad and overseas. In a war time environment, such as Iraq, the purpose of how the military should be deployed is easier to clearly state. But in times when there is no imminent threat, it is much more difficult to transition

War is a dangerous game, many people would likely agree to this, however, very few have ever seen a battlefront. The truth is that war, no matter how awful we can imagine it, is always exponentially worse. In Timothy Findley’s The Wars, Robert Ross, the protagonist,­ faces a situation that he finds difficult to come to terms with, and when faced with a similar situation later on in the novel, he must take drastic measures to reconcile the uncertainties of the past situation. Timothy Findley suggests, through the life of Robert Ross, that one’s need to reconcile the uncertainties of past experiences dominate our actions when such situations come up again in our lives. In the words of Hiram Johnson, a US Senator during the First World War,

President Obama stated in his Anti-Terror Strategy address, "We continue to face a terrorist threat. We cannot erase every trace of evil from the world, and small groups of killers have the capacity to do great harm. That was the case before 9/11, and that remains true today” (Obama).The Middle East today is composed of very complicated religious tensions, unstable states, and rising terrorist organizations. The collapse of central governments and the rise of powerful non-state actors breed problems that foreign powers and the world’s only superpower, simply should begin to address. Many argue that the involvement in the Middle East is not our problem and that it will only cause our national debt to increase. As human beings we must began to realize the crimes against humanity occurring in the region and ask ourselves one question, can we truly turn a blind eye to the hundreds of innocent people dying and at what cost? The United States of America must get involved in the Middle East to ensure justice is achieved and maintained. Our interference will decrease the chances of terrorist attacking U.S. soil, and our military involvement will save the lives of many innocent citizens caught up in the turmoil. The United States must protect its interests and allies in the region. America stands for freedom, justice, and dignity; we must take a stand to defend ourselves and those in need, if we truly want to uphold the

Zunes, Stephen. "A U.S. Invasion of Iraq Is Not Justified." The Nation 275 (30 Sept. 2002): 11. Rpt. in Is Military Action Justified Against Nations Thought to Support Terrorism? Ed. James D. Torr. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2003. At Issue. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 20 Mar. 2011. Document

The containment policy established by George Bush Sr. after the Gulf War is the most viable option for the United States when deciding how to stabilize the Middle East. A political strategy of containment strictly sustains the status quo, and is inexpensive in terms of blood, money, and political capital. Furthering the United States’ containment policy in the context of Iraq will halter the making of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, ensuring the free flow of oil from the Gulf, while preventing Iraq from threatening its neighbors. For this reason, a political strategy of containment is comparatively advantageous to the alternative. This essay will begin by examining the effect of no-fly zones on the Iraqi government, moving to discuss weapons inspections, discussing the strategic viability of sanctions and their effect on the Iraqi economy, finally explaining the advantages containment holds over intervention.

Given that many plants need to be sown and then reaped when fully grown, the metaphorical conceptualization of people as plants may, accordingly, be elaborated to include a reaper, more specifically a conceptualization of death as the Grim Reaper (Lakoff & Turner, 1989, pp. 16, 75):

The assignment I choose to redo as my creative revision was MWA-2. Originally, MWA-2 was an academic essay on the documentary “The Central Park Five”. For my revision, I wanted to do a movie review poster on the documentary “The War You Don’t See”.

Our world in the last century alone has been involved in hundreds of different conflicts. We are almost constantly in some sort of war fighting over disagreements and resources. Countries fight for many reasons of disagreement yet we don't consider if their wars are justifiable. The Just war theory developed by Saint Augustine and revised later in the fifteenth century by Saint Thomas Aquinas deals with this justification of how and why wars are fought. In the modern century, more than ever, the western world including the United States has dealt with wars in their interest that we can debate and analyze if they are justifiable. Today the just war theory is as relevant in modern times as it was when developed in the fifth century.

For the past eight or nine years, the United States has continually sent troops overseas to the Middle East, but why? The government has said that it is to fight terrorism or to bring democracy to the Middle Eastern nations. There happens to be a barrier that stands in the way of both those goals and that would be Islamic Fundamentalism. Islamic Fundamentalism is the term used to describe the religious ideologies of advocating a return to the “fundamentals” of Islam. Through this return to the Islamic fundamentals, the rights of women have been violated while acts of terrorism and suicides increase. Also, there has been an increase in resistance to the United States occupation. With this increase of resistance the death toll of United

“Why can't everyone just get along?” is an easy question that is not so easily answered. Those words always flew out of my mouth every time my conservative, Catholic grandparents and liberal mother criticized and attacked one another. They were all just heated arguments until once, my grandmother called my mom explicit names because she voted for Obama in 2012. My Mom, of course, took offense to the name calling and just told herself that their opinions don't matter. I'm sure my grandparents said the same about her opinions. My family was torn for months. As a naive 12-year-old boy, all I felt was anger at my grandmother for attacking my mother like that. I couldn't believe someone would insult someone's character because she has a different belief. It confused me. I couldn’t wrap my mind around how they could have heart to heart conversations about lost loved ones and help each other out on the side of the highway, yet always be on offense any time the election came up.

Persian Gulf War, also called Gulf War, (1990–91), international conflict that was triggered by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990. Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein, ordered the invasion and occupation of Kuwait with the apparent aim of acquiring that nation’s large oil reserves, canceling a large debt Iraq owed Kuwait, and expanding Iraqi power in the region1. The Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein claimed as a reason for the invasion a territorial dispute over the Shatt al-Arab, the waterway which forms the boundary between the two countries2. Saddam Hussein believed that Iran was in turmoil and that his forces could achieve quick victory3.

were chosen by God to set up a state of Israel where they could not be