Are These People Stupid Or Evil?

The picture above comes from The LA Times, via Under The Same Sun, and shows American soldiers "resting" in a mosque in Fallujah. Now I tend to dismiss this sot of thing as stupidity, but imagine how it will play in the Islamic world. Zeynep Toufe raises a worrying question in response to the image:

Does anyone understand anything about religious feelings in general or about Islam in particular? Have they spent even half a day watching a documentary or two about Islam and noticed that people carefully and respectfully take their shoes off before entering a mosque, where they will kneel and put their head on that carpet?

She goes on to conclude,

Seriously, this is either the most arrogant, incompetent, ignorant occupation, ever, or the most clever, insidious, skillful effort towards bringing about an apocalyptic world war. Are they asleep at the awheel, drowning under their own ignorance, or simply want to end life on earth as we know it?

God help us!