In a speech delivered in Dallas on Wednesday, George W. Bush denounced a “totally unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq”… before recovering in front of a dumbfounded assembly. “I mean, from Ukraine,” he quickly added.
This slip has been presented by some as a form of confession, nineteen years after the invasion of Iraq by the United States when George W. Bush was president. The latter committed this embarrassing clumsiness during an intervention at the Dallas institute bearing his name. He then spoke of the war in Ukraine and criticized the “autocratic regime” of Russia, indicates BFM TV.
“Iraq too, anyway”
“The result is the absence of balance of power in Russia and the decision of one man to launch a totally unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq”, he launched before correcting himself and allowing himself a bit of dubious humor. “Iraq too, anyway,” he dared, provoking laughter in the room. “I am 75 years old,” he added, once again garnering laughter from the assembly.
But George W. Bush didn’t make everyone laugh with this slip. American intervention in Iraq has indeed always been strongly criticized. “During these two brief seconds in American history, the truth prevailed,” tweeted Hussain Nadim, a geopolitical specialist working in Pakistan. Keith Olbermann, journalist and sports commentator on ESPN, evokes a revealing slip. “Glad to see that he ended up agreeing with me after 19 years”, he regrets.
In 2003, the 43rd President of the United States justified the invasion of Iraq by the presence of weapons of mass destruction in the country. But no such weapon has ever been discovered on Iraqi soil. Nearly 4,500 American soldiers died in Iraq from 2003 to 2011, when the troops withdrew. And tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed.