Former US President George W. Bush committed a gaffe this Wednesday (18) by confusing the Russian invasion of Ukraine with the Iraq War, which began in 2003 under his rule.
“One man’s decision to launch a totally unwarranted and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean Ukraine,” Bush said at an event in Dallas, Texas. After a brief silence, with a slight smile, he added: “From Iraq too.” “Anyway, I’m 75 [anos]”, he said, drawing laughter from the audience.
Bush ordered the invasion on the grounds that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, which has never been proven. The war lasted eight years, until the departure of the last combat troops in 2011.
The American also compared the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, to Winston Churchill (1874-1965), prime minister who led the United Kingdom during World War II (1939-1945).
Bush’s remarks quickly went viral on social media, racking up more than three million views on Twitter alone after a Dallas News reporter shared the snippet of the speech.
On Wednesday, on the 84th day of the war in Ukraine, Russia announced the expulsion of 85 French, Spanish and Italian diplomats from the country, in the latest retaliation against European countries that ordered the departure of Russian officials. On the battlefront, Ukrainian forces continued to hold back the Russian advance in the Kharkiv region, while the Kremlin consolidated its takeover of Mariupol.
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