On the one hand, the United States declared today that we are done paying for the reconstruction of Iraq, on the other hand a Pentagon spokesman fielding a question about the requests for hundred's of millions of dollars that keep popping up in the federal budget for military base construction in Iraq states, "We're building permanent bases in Iraq for Iraqis." 

Now, the White House will point to the elimination of reconstruction funding for Iraq as an example of the new government's ability to take over the rebuilding of the country, however along the same lines the Iraqi government evidently lacks the funds or ability to build large military installations to garrison Iraqi troops?

Oddly enough, if one wanted to deny that we are building permanent US bases in Iraq, you too may have to keep going through these same odd leaps of logic....