guantanamo and the quran

Juan Cole's Informed Comment blog for May 17th has a good summary of some of the issues behind Newsweek's original story, and their retraction (strongly encouraged by the White House). Personally, the whole discussion seems really bizzare to me. If the U.S. military is willing to discount the lives of Muslim civilians as "collateral damage" in military campaigns and if they are willing to totally degrade civilians at Abu Gharaib and if they are willing to curtail civil liberties, even in the case of U.S. citizens like Juan Padilla, etc. then why would there be ANY reluctance at all in desecrating something which they believe to be just a silly book made out of paper and ink?