"Brutal invasion of Iraq" .. A slip of the tongue of George Bush as he describes the Ukraine war

Bush's slip could cause him great embarrassment.

archival

Former US President George W. Bush mistakenly confused the invasion of Iraq overseen by his administration and the unjustified Russian war in Ukraine, in a speech he gave, Wednesday, in Dallas.

Video footage showed that Bush, 75, corrected himself immediately, after describing the occupation of Iraq as "totally unjustified and brutal", while discussing election integrity at the George Bush Institute at Southern Methodist University.

He said the Russian elections were rigged, and political opponents were "imprisoned or otherwise excluded from the electoral process".

The result is a lack of checks and balances in Russia, according to the former president, and a one-man decision to launch a "brutal and totally unjustified invasion of Iraq."

"I mean Ukraine," said the Republican, who recognized his slip right away, shaking his head, staring and smiling.

Then he muttered softly before saying, "Anyway... ah... 75," an apparent reference to his age, as the audience laughed.

The United States invaded Iraq in 2003, arguing that the country possessed weapons of mass destruction and terrorists.

No weapons of mass destruction were found.

More than a quarter of a million people were killed in the ensuing conflict, including about 5,000 American soldiers, according to the Iraq Casualty Count, a website that verifies reports and records on casualties in the country.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was among the speakers at the "Bush University Park" event in Texas called "Election - A More Perfect Union."

• The Russian elections are rigged, and political opponents are imprisoned or otherwise excluded from the electoral process.

Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news