Bush’s gaffe, more than a slip of the tongue

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It was a moment of rare confession, though unintentional, from the ex-American President George W. Bush. In his public comments on the war in Ukraine, Bush made a historic gaffe. Reading from the written text, but momentarily taking his eyes off it, Bush blurted out the un-edited truth: “The decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq”!

"I mean, of Ukraine" he quickly corrected himself as the audience erupted in laughter. The former president then shrugged and muttered under his breath, "Iraq, too", and made his way out of the embarrassment saying, laughingly, “Anyway I’m 75” blaming his age for the slip of the tongue.

Bush’s slip-up :

Despite Bush's correction, the damage was already done. The video of his remarks was viewed more than 18 million times on Twitter within the night. Bush’s Iraqi gaffe caught the eyes and there was hardly anyone who paid attention to the other contents of his 10-minute long speech (in which he described Ukraine’s Zelensky as “the Churchill of the 21st century”, immediately after calling him “the cool little guy”). 

Some pundits called it a “Freudian slip” indicating how the former president feels in his subconscious. But “Freudian confession” would be a more accurate description of Bush’s verbal lapse. Deep in his heart, he knows he was responsible for the illegal, unethical, and criminal invasion of Iraq in 2003. The whole “war case” that he presented to the American people and to the world was all lies, and nothing but lies and fabrications. Bush’s talk about Iraq’s possession of mobile labs to produce WMDs, Iraq’s links to Al-Qa’eda and Bin-Ladin, buying Uranium from Niger, and its possession of long-range missiles. All proven to be false, no more than propaganda. His “war case” was based on lies, misleading information, and false evidence.

It was sickening to see Bush laughing after the gaffe. To laugh just after admitting he was responsible for a brutal and unjustified invasion of another country is something that compels more psycho-analysis of the man to determine how he feels about his victims, about the tens of thousands of children who lost their fathers because of him, about the lives of young people who were killed... After all, mass-murdering people in Iraq is not funny. Not funny at all!

Too many people in the middle east, the radical outrage currently in the USA (and Europe) about the war in Ukraine, is looked at with doubt. It’s selective, many people say. Similar outrage is missing when it comes to Palestine, where decades-long Israeli occupation goes on.

America preaches “accountability”, "transparency" and “human rights” in the world. Well, it's time to put that on the check! They have the man in their midst, living comfortably on his Texas farm, enjoying immunity, and fully protected against international justice. How could anybody in the world believe in what America says, and its criticism of human rights records in other countries, as long as George W. Bush remains untouched, avoiding all forms of legal accountability? America hasn’t even issued an apology to the Iraqi people.

George W. Bush will go in history books as the man who destroyed another country without any legal or moral basis. His name will remain in the history’s list of invaders and barbarians. If America doesn’t put him on trial to face war crime charges over the 2003 invasion of Iraq, then it has no right whatsoever to lecture other countries and nations about human rights and values. With Bush in the scene, America's "human rights ploy" won't work.