All I was told to do was to get General Ripper on the phone with the President of the United States.

Now just one second. You just said, "The President".

What about the President?

Now, the President wants to speak to General Ripper, doesn't he? Now, General Ripper is dead, is he not? I am General Ripper's Executive Officer, so the President will bloody well want to speak to me, won't he? [gestures at a payphone booth] There's a telephone box over there, and the line may be open.

You wanna talk to the President of the United States?

I don't want to talk to him, Colonel, I've got to talk to him. And I can assure you that if you don't put that gun away and stop this stupid nonsense, the court of inquiry on this will give you such a pranging, you'll be lucky if you end up wearing the uniform of a bloody toilet attendant!