It's a slip that almost tastes like a confession.
This Wednesday, during a speech at the Dallas institute bearing his name, the former president of the United States confused Ukraine and Iraq.
An error that could have gone unnoticed, if the sentence containing it had not been so symbolic.
Criticizing the regime of Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush considered that there was, in Russia, "an absence of checks and balances" which had notably led to "the decision of one man to launch a brutal and totally unjustified of Iraq".
He was obviously talking about Ukraine…
Former US President George W. Bush: "The decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean, of the Ukraine" pic.twitter.com/IanADTcAg6
— BNO News (@BNONews) May 19, 2022
Quickly realizing his mistake, in front of a silent audience, the former US president recovered.
“I mean from Ukraine.
Iraq…Anyway,” he continued, sparking laughter from the congregation.
Before concluding: “I am 75 years old”.
What trigger a new burst of laughter.
A slip seen as a truth
Since then, this slip has made the rounds of social networks, some seeing it as the triumph of the truth “for the space of two small seconds”.
If it has been so perceived, it is because the invasion of Iraq in 2003, when George W. Bush was in power, is highly contested.
For that brief 2 seconds in American history, truth prevailed!
https://t.co/OiAs0zBt1C
— Hussain Nadim (@HNadim87) May 19, 2022
Officially, this war was triggered in particular following the attacks of September 11, Iraq being presented as one of those responsible for terrorism for its supposed organization with Al-Qaeda.
The country's leader, Saddam Hussein, was also accused of possessing weapons of mass destruction, recalls BFMTV.
In his speech announcing the intervention in Iraq, the President referred to the fact that the Iraqi regime had "assisted, trained and sheltered terrorists, including agents of Al-Qaeda" and that it possessed and had "already used weapons of mass destruction”.
Read alsoJacques Chirac, the man who said no to the war in Iraq
However, many observers and journalists revealed that George W. Bush's accusations about the Iraqi regime were false and that one of the reasons for the invasion - if not the main one - was in fact… Oil.