Nonprofit's heartbreaking 2014 ad goes viral again: 'Imagine it happening to a little white girl'

A nonprofit's 2014 advertisement has gone viral again amid U.S.-Iran tensions and Syria's ongoing civil war.

On Tuesday, a Twitter user by the name of "StanceGrounded" shared the nearly two-minute video from Save the Children, an organization that provides aid to children living in conflict.

"This is what war looks like," he wrote. "Little brown girls lives serve little value in this world but imagine it happening to a little white girl ... if that's what it takes for you to empathize."

The ad begins with a young girl celebrating her birthday. During the first half of the clip, she appears to enjoy a stable life — she's seen putting on makeup, playing with her teddy bear and riding a swing.

But as the video progresses, the narrative gets darker.

The girl appears noticeably dejected as some sort of conflict ensues in the background. By the end of the clip, she refuses to blow out a birthday candle. The ad concludes with a message that reads, "Just because it isn't happening here doesn't mean it isn't happening. #SaveSyriasChildren"

The user's tweet immediately went viral. By Friday afternoon, it had received over 17,000 likes and a slew of comments condemning the general public for its indifference to children of color.

"I’ve never understood why civil war in Syria didn’t illicit a firmer response from the global community," one person tweeted. "A tyrant has been allowed to destroy his own country, but since USSR and Iran back him, thousands of people HAVE BEEN KILLED. This may be the greatest tragedy of our time."

"As we see in the United States, many white people do not care about brown people," another wrote. "They don't see them as people. I'm so sorry so many white people are so wrong."

The original tweet comes just days after President Trump ordered an airstrike that killed Iran's General Qassem Soleimani, head of the country’s elite Quds Force. Critics have since condemned the attack, warning that it could be a precursor to war between the U.S. and Iran.

As the two countries trade barbs, Syria remains embroiled in conflict. Last Wednesday, four children were killed in a rocket attack by Syrian government forces on a school in Idlib, according to Al Jazeera. Last year, a United Nations report noted that 1,106 children were killed in 2018, "the highest ever number of children killed in a single year since the start of the war."