Reply #17: Before Bush starts to uncork his champagne,

[cliss]

I need to point something out. There's an article on Counterpunch which goes into detail about the corruption in Lockheed Martin. It's a long story which delves into crony deals, backroom contracts, all made on the backs of taxpayers.

Lockheed helicopters are not as awesome as they'd like us to believe. Recall the 2 helicopters which went down in Iraq this last week. I think another one went down today in Baghdad. I read recently that we've lost a total of 33 helicopters in Iraq. That's a terrible record.

Because of deep corruption, the quality of these helicopters has gone down drastically. Government contacts are handed to them, regardless of their quality control.

If I was a US troop in Iraq, I'd hesitate to get in one of those things. I'd see if I could walk.

So -- have fun, George.