A billowing Syrian flag towers over two children as they look out—over the seemingly serene, recently liberated town of Azaz near the country’s Turkish border in early August. Things throughout the rest of the country, however—and particularly in the nearby city of Aleppo—are not as restful. Violence between the army of rebels and the President Bashar al-Assad–backed regime is escalating, as airstrikes decimate family homes and kill civilians, children lose their lives in the crossfire, and unrest between the warring factions continues. As the United Nations weighs whether to intervene in Syria, the photographic evidence of the devastation and loss of life serves as a convincing argument that the time has come. Photographer Adam Dean recently returned from nearly two weeks documenting the devastation in Syria.