If ONE prisoner was so degraded that he gave information that saved ONE U.S. Soldier's life, then I wouldn't call it "needless". The goal was to coax information from these "people". Defiling a stack of paper pulp seems fairly reasonable to me...even in front of those paragons of religious tolerance called Muslims.
It's not a matter of the prisoner. It's a matter of ticking off a billion people for no good reason. There are other options. I would hope that even if this results in only one more borderline jihadist getting the motivation to strap a bomb on and blow a few people up, you would not still say it was worth it, but somehow I doubt it.