I’ll let zeynep’s excellent rant about this picture suffice:
Somebody please tell Lt. Brandon Turner that he’s insane, that the Pentagon is insane, whoever is allowing the marines or any American soldiers “rest” on that “plush red carpet” with their shoes, uniforms and machines guns is insane. 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? (Those “plush red carpets”, by the way, are prayer rugs, or”sajjade.” And you don’t step on them with your combat boots, especially inside a mosque, and smile for the cameras unless you really want to fight to the death with up to a billion people.)
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?