[imagesource: AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite]

You could use any number of images to represent the bumpy ride that was George W. Bush’s American presidency.

Perhaps the aptest, considering his blunder during an event at his presidential library in Dallas yesterday, is the infamous ‘Mission Accomplished’ snap from May 1, 2003.

After landing on the aircraft carrier the USS Lincoln in a jet, Bush told soldiers that major combat operations in Iraq were over with a massive banner visible behind his head.

They were not over. Not by a long shot.

The US invaded Iraq in 2003 claiming the country had weapons of mass destruction, which have never been found.

Thus, Bush knows a thing or two about “unjustified and brutal” invasions. Perhaps that was weighing on his mind when he made the slip-up, meaning to reference Ukraine but saying Iraq instead.

Watch from 20 seconds in:

Speaking in Dallas this afternoon, former President George. W Bush made a significant verbal slip-up while discussing the war in Ukraine.

He tried referencing what he described as the “wholly unjustified and brutal invasion” — but said Iraq, instead of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/tw0VNJzKmE

— Michael Williams (@michaeldamianw) May 19, 2022

And the crowd at the Southern Methodist University roared with laughter.

By some estimates, more than a quarter of a million people have died in the Iraq conflict, including nearly 5 000 US troops.

The Independent notes that Bush also described Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a “cool little guy while comparing him to former British prime minister Winston Churchill.

[source:independent]