There was something about this picture

This is a New York Times picture with the caption

A marine had admirers in Falluja on Tuesday, thanks to Sunni allies. But the government has done little to keep them in the fold.

Something about it struck me. Perhaps the contrast between the armed marine and the children, or the high tech weapons he presumably has and the backwardness of the neighborhood he is patrolling, or the fact that he's so far from home, doing what he's been asked to do and having children watch while he works, but that his job is so deadly. It just seems strange and touching.