Reply #42: The anectodal evidence seems to back this up

[Tommymac]

Here's what Woodward reports: In late July 2002, Gen. Tommy Franks informed Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that to make the Iraq war feasible, at least two steps had to be taken in Kuwait. First, air bases there had to be made suitable for aircraft use, parking and munitions storage. Second, a new fuel distribution capability had to be created, enabling fuel to be moved from Kuwaiti refineries to the Iraqi border so as to support the coming invasion. Bush told Woodward that these activities were done covertly and at significant expense -- leading, in fact, to 30 projects that the president expressly approved by the end of July.

See my post #25 above, especially the section on the South Dakota NG
http://sdguard.ngb.army.mil/Features/Feature.asp?Story=164&Rel=3

I found several more instances of NG reports about troops doing construction in the area...I'll try to post them later this weekend or early next week.