What is wrong with this picture?

This pic was taken in Concepcion, Chile, the day after the 8.8 quake.


The caption for the pic was:

Wary: Soldiers stand guard as people loot a supermarket in Concepcion the day after the huge quake

Here is the link to the article.

What exactly are the soldiers guarding? Are they there to make sure that the property owners don't try to prevent people from taking things that don't belong to them?

From the article:

Eduardo Aundez, a Spanish professor, watched with disgust as a soldier patiently waited for looters to rummage through a downtown store, then lobbed two tear gas canisters into the rubble to get them out.

That soldier was really doing a great job of guarding there, wasn't he?

More:

A dusk-until-dawn curfew has been imposed in Concepcion after looters sacked virtually every market in a city stricken by Saturday's massive earthquake.

There's nothing like closing the barn door after the horses have all gotten out.

In times of disaster you are truly on your own.

If you have supplies stored they may be destroyed or you may not be able to reach them.

If you are a store owner you are screwed and are dependent on an insurance company to cover your losses.

If you work for an insurance company then you are screwed because nobody will stop the looters and you will have huge claims to pay when it is all over. Don't even think about raising your rates afterwords or the whole world will declare you the bad guy and congress will subpoena you to testify as to why you are so evil as to actually try and make a profit.