
In this image, a very important, current world issue is being shown.  This photograph depicts a Syrian village after being bombed by American planes.  In this image, we can see Syrian families and children whose homes have clearly been destroyed by American air strikes in an attempt to control and contain ISIS, the radical Islamic group that has taken control of much of the Middle East in the past few years.  With their public beheadings and public acts of terror, the United States and other world powers have been trying to destroy them, which sometimes results in the killing of innocent civilians and refugees.  Since the presidency of George H. W. Bush, problems for America always seem to crop up in the Middle East, and America never seems to be able to stay out of it.  Now, like thirty years ago, the United States has been involved with conflicts in the Middle East, and more specifically in this photograph, ISIS and Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad.  In this image, elements of dominance, contrast, space, and organization represent the problems going on in the Middle East.

When first analyzing this image, there doesn’t seem to be one single thing that dominates the photograph, or a focal point.  One’s eye is just drawn to the rubble of the buildings and the Syrian people standing on top of it.  This focal point is very important, because it provides insight to a large number of Syrian citizens who are experiencing these bombings and airstrikes first hand.  The focal point gives us a window into the larger aspect of people whose lives are being harshly effected by airstrikes.  When seeing the destruction and displaced people in this picture, the first thought is that the United States is doing a bad thing in bombing Syria, when in reality, there are many pros and cons that should be considered and that are being considered by the American government and its allies.  Obviously in this picture, the cons are shown and this picture can be used as an example in the campaign against using air strikes in Syria.  They are going through a civil war currently, and the United States could be doing more harm than help by killing civilians and damaging property.  However, a pro of the airstrikes is that Syria is largely populated by ISIS, and if the United States can monitor them and find out where they are, the airstrikes should continue in a concentrated manner.  ISIS is now a globally known terror organization, claiming responsibility for separate attacks in France, Belgium, and all across the Middle East.  The United States and many of its allies now realize this, and it is evident by Great Britain voting to carry out airstrikes on them as well.  In reality, ISIS poses the most threat to the national security of the United States, and something that carries so much of a threat cannot be ignored by the United States.  

However, people disagree and say that there are other ways to fight ISIS that lower the risk of killing civilians like in the picture.  There are risks in those ways as well.  For example, a minority of people say sending troops into Syria could help fight ISIS and would be a good thing.  In reality, this increases the chances of Americans being killed when the top priority of the government and national defense is for Americans not to be killed. This also could be perceived as an invasion of Syria which could create conflicts with other world powers like Russia.   Russia and Putin support Al-Assad and the Syrian government, so entering Syria could anger Russia and start another big conflict with them in a worst case scenario.  Because Russia isn’t technically an enemy of the United States, most people wouldn’t necessarily call them an ally so it would probably be in the United States’ best interest to avoid angering Putin.  Also, sending soldiers is very expensive and one thing the United States does not need to do is spend money, as the national debt is already enormous.  Another way people propose ridding ISIS is sending aid and supplies to their enemies in the Middle East.  Even though the Syrian government and President Al-Assad are against ISIS, they are in no way friends with the United States.  Sending aid and supplies to Assad could backfire on the United States, in a similar way when they supplied Iraqis in the 1990s and early 2000s.  Unless the Syrian government and Al-Assad were closely monitored, sending supplies could end up very badly for the United States.  

Contrast is also an element in the photograph above that symbolizes the problems with airstrikes and non-concentrated attacks on ISIS.  When looking at the background of the picture, we can see somewhat well-developed buildings that were not damaged by the airstrike.  This gives us insight into what the buildings and homes of the children in the foreground could have been like.  It even shows that the infrastructure that they do have in Syria is good enough to provide stable and nice-looking homes, and it makes it all the more unfortunate that these homes and families were taken by airstrikes not meant for them.  However, the civil war going on makes the government care very little for the people.  The government is against most of the Syrian people right now, so if they are the victims of an airstrike there isn’t really anything they can do and they definitely cannot expect support from their government.  By contrasting the background and foreground of the picture, we can get an insight into how these people lived and what was taken from them, as well as what they probably will never get back.

Another element to the picture that shows the destruction of the airstrike is the amount of space and similarity in the picture.  The amount of rubble in the foreground of the picture makes it almost appear as blank and lifeless, when before you can imagine different types of building and homes for these displaced families, kind of like the kind we can see few of in the background of the photograph.  Like contrast, the different types of space show the vast difference in before and after the airstrikes occurred.  In the back, the open space is of nice, blue sky and the buildings that make it look like somewhat of a nice place.  This is drastically different from the space in the front of the picture, where it is just blank, white space full of rubble.  This makes it seem much less desirable then the blue sky and palm trees we get a glimpse of in the back. 

Another reason world powers should try to avoid air strikes in civilian populated areas is that it leaves young people without a family with nothing really to do besides join ISIS.  When looking at the organization of the picture above, you can clearly see children standing alone, without families or parents to take care of them.  The way this is organized is very important, because it can symbolize the aloneness of the children and shows that they have no one to turn to.  ISIS can use pictures like these to recruit young people by telling them that the United States, Great Britain, etc. bombed your town and killed your family, and you should join us in fighting against them.  So, this is another aspect of why air-strikes can end up hurting the United States, besides just the fact that civilians are killed sometimes.

Another key aspect of ISIS that makes them so difficult to neutralize is their social media presence.  They use social media sites like Twitter and Facebook in recruiting young people all over the world.  In some way, major world powers such as the United States, Great Britain, and France need to find a way to monitor their social media presence and try to prevent younger people from joining.  I don’t really know the best way to accomplish this honestly, but maybe these countries can set up divisions to look at their social media accounts and try to monitor the demographic of people ISIS is trying to broadcast to and maybe do something to prevent their recruitment from happening.  As big and as widespread as social media is, this definitely would be a very difficult task, but it is really important to limit the number of people joining ISIS outside of Syria and Iraq.  

Overall, this picture through its different elements of dominance, contrast, space, and organization gives us a look into the problem of civilians being killed by US and their allies’ airstrikes, and then the bigger, global problem of ISIS.  The terror ISIS has brought across the world the past couple years is no joke, and they are an evil organization that gets satisfaction over the senseless killing of innocent people.  The world is starting to realize it must go to drastic measures in order to destroy ISIS, and unfortunately that can sometimes lead to the death of more innocent people and the destruction of lives and property as depicted in the image above.