George W Bush’s Iraq-Ukraine gaffe is a reminder of western double standards

One country’s special military operation to avert an existential threat may be another country’s unprovoked and illegal invasion, writes Mary Dejevsky

It had been, he said, ‘the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq... I mean of Ukraine’ (AP)

Until the video clip hit social media, the claim that there was any parallel between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and any recent war waged by the US or Nato was effectively confined to the alternative media, at least in the English-speaking world. No longer.

Speaking in Dallas, in his home state of Texas, George W Bush – otherwise known as Bush 43 – embarked on a full-throated attack on Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in a speech singing the praises of electoral democracy, only to muff the punchline in spectacular fashion. It had been, he said, “the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq... I mean of Ukraine”.

The former US president was shown laughing off his mistake in typical George W fashion – for those who remember the levity he sometimes seemed to attach to his responsibilities as “leader of the free world”. The man who had introduced us to such coinings as “misunderestimate”, putting “food on your family” and the rest had just goofed again, except now he could now blame his linguistic confusion on his age (75), which he duly did.