George W Bush confuses invasion of Ukraine for Iraq in 'Freudian slip of the century'

Oh dear…

George W Bush has just given us one of the biggest political Freudian slips we’ve ever seen, after confusing the invasion of Ukraine for Iraq in a new speech.

The former US president was speaking about Vladimir Putin’s illegal war in the country when he got the two countries mixed up – and inadvertently called the invasion of Iraq “unjustified and brutal”.

“Russian elections are rigged. Political opponents are imprisoned or otherwise eliminated from the electoral process,” Bush began.

“The decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq… I mean of Ukraine,” he said during the incredibly awkward gaffe.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

There was silence from the crowd, before Bush said “Iraq too, anyway” and caused them to laugh.

He went on to blame the mistake on his age by saying: “[I'm] 75.”

Bush was speaking at his presidential centre in Dallas. He spent the rest of the address speaking about Russia and the importance of fair elections.

The invasion of Iraq, which Bush ordered, saw tens of thousands of Iraqis die in the resulting civil war, as well as 4,825 coalition troops during the invasion itself.

It was launched on the pretence that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was harbouring weapons of mass destruction. None were ever found.

Social media users couldn’t quite believe what they were seeing after the clip was posted.

“The freudian slip of the century,” one wrote.

“I have no words,” another said.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.