Think of this as the greatest American story of these years never told—or more accurately, since there have been a few reports on a couple of these mega-bases—never shown. After all, what an epic of construction this has been, as the Pentagon built a series of fortified American towns, each some 15 to 20 miles around, with many of the amenities of home, including big name fast-food franchises, PXes, and the like, in a hostile land in the midst of war and occupation. In terms of troops, the President may only have put his “surge” strategy into play in January 2007, but his Pentagon has been “surging” on base construction since April 2003.

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/tomdispatch/2008/06/greatest-story-never-told.html