The Pentagon Wars (1998 TV Movie)
Olympia Dukakis: Madam Chairwoman
Quotes
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Major General Partridge : Just because the tests didn't turn out the way Colonel Burton thought they would, was no reason to suspect there was anything devious going on.
Madame Chairwoman : I ask you General, filling the fuel tanks with *water* before a test to check the combustibility of those tanks, that wasn't devious?
Major General Partridge : If the tanks had been filled with fuel, there's a good chance the vehicle would have exploded.
[Stunned silence]
Congressman #1 : ...Isn't that the point?
Major General Partridge : If the vehicle had exploded, we wouldn't be able to run additional tests!
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Major General Partridge : [explaining why he was against Burton's tests] I can't order up an unlimited number of Bradleys, just to blow them up! Unless, of course, you're telling me to spend more money, which I can't imagine you are.
Madame Chairwoman : General, I believe there were attempts to make the Bradley amphibious?
Major General Partridge : [after a pause] Yes... although how that's relevant in any way, I fail to comprehend...
Madame Chairwoman : How many Bradleys were lost during that phase, General?
Major General Partridge : Lost?
Madame Chairwoman : According to reports, four Bradleys sank during testing.
Major General Partridge : Well, that's a matter of opinion.
Madame Chairwoman : It's not "opinion," General. Four-of-them-sank.
Major General Partridge : ...Technically, yes.
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Major General Partridge : I'm not going to sit here and tell you the Paveway never missed.
Madame Chairwoman : It missed by a mean distance of five miles, and nearly fifty percent of the time.
Major General Partridge : You know, in baseball, a guy that hits .400 is considered pretty damned great.
Congressman #1 : In baseball, the losing team isn't killed by their opponents.
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Major General Partridge : But even a heat-seeking missile can miss a target.
Madame Chairwoman : General, it says here that you taped electric hotplates to the surface of the vehicle to help your heat-seeking missile find its target, and that the surface temperature of the vehicle was so high it could have fried an egg at twenty feet!
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Madame Chairwoman : Seventeen years, and fourteen billion dollars of the taxpayers' money, to design and build one armored vehicle.
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[the budget of the entire Bradley project]
Major General Partridge : Fourteen.
Madame Chairwoman : Million?
Major General Partridge : [Under his breath] Billion...
Madame Chairwoman : What?
Major General Partridge : Billion.
Madame Chairwoman : Billion? With a "B"?
Major General Partridge : With a "B".
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Major General Partridge : The Paveway is one hell of a bomb. Laser-guided, state-of-the-art.
Madame Chairwoman : And it proved what? That we have an effective weapon as long as the enemy allows us to build a two-story crane over their tanks?
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Madame Chairwoman : Am I to understand you were not in favor of the tests Col. Burton proposed?
Major General Partridge : Absolutely not.
Madame Chairwoman : Absolutely not yes or absolutely not no?
Major General Partridge : Absolutely not absolutely.