George W. Bush mistakenly condemns the 'unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq'

Former President George W. Bush appeared to condemn his own administration's invasion of Iraq after an unfortunate slip-up.

In a speech Wednesday, the 43rd president sharply criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for rigging elections and imprisoning political opponents, as well as launching an ongoing invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. But in condemning the Ukraine invasion, Bush accidentally referred to Iraq, which the United States invaded under Bush in 2003.

"Russian elections are rigged, political opponents are imprisoned or otherwise eliminated from participating in the electoral process," Bush said. "The result is an absence of checks and balances in Russia, and the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq — I mean, of Ukraine."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

Bush chuckled as he caught his mistake, adding, "75," referring to his age. The audience laughed along with the former president as he continued with the speech.

The gaffe quickly went viral, and MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan called it "one of the biggest Freudian slips of all time."

"I'm not laughing," Hasan said. "And I'm guessing nor are the families of the thousands of American troops and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who died in that war."