World sympathy. PR war. Especially from the liberal western press that will air the images from this as if it really happened and get everyone all upset about the bad, oppressive, mean, violent, evil rebellion trying to oust their beloved leader. When the truth is a lot less dramatic. It is a press technique proven to be effective in achieving the goal of influencing public opinion by US press corp during the Vietnam War. And every tinpot cause has used it ever since.
Pictures provoke emotional responses. They want to stage pics that provoke you like these iconic photo stirred the world. Emotion is the weapon here. for good, or ill, passion, fear, mockery, respect, duty, service, and death. they are all here, and they all have power of the hearts and minds of people the world over. So, to answer your question, they are staging a scene to provoke an emotional response, a lie to provoke a passion, like flirting with another to make your lover jealous. Truth may or may not have anything to do with it.
This is totally off topic and a blatant thread hijack, but anyway. I was in Rome in June for a Harley rally and toured the Vatican while there. I paid for an after hours private tour that let us in the Sistine Chapel after hours with a private guide. It was well worth the money as they don't allow the guides during normal hours to narrate. But ours was free to tell us all the little details of what we were looking at. I loved this painting above the alter. 10 Years after painting the ceiling, Michelangelo was once again commissioned to paint this mural. During the intervening decade he had received much criticism for painting full genitalia in his works. In the mural "Judgement Day" we see Christ in the middle with his right hand raised and his left hand lowered. The redeemed saints are ascending to Heaven on his right and the condemned descending to hell on his left. If you zoom in on the picture you will see the figure of a man on the far bottom right (our right) of the painting. The man was Michelangelo's most vocal critic for painting genitalia. He painted a likeness of the man and has a snake curling around his waist and the snake is biting his crotch!! So you cannot see his genitalia!!! So this iconic painting, in one of the most hallowed places on earth, contains a big FU to the artists critics!! LOL!!! I love it!
No fear of that on my part. Hitler, The Pope, Anti-christ, all the same. JK. A little bit of my Southern Baptist roots showing!
They don't let you get right up to the wall anymore I guess. This was our last night there and I was determined to get this shot before I left!!
