DALLAS — Speaking at an event in Dallas Wednesday night, former President George W. Bush mistakenly referred to the invasion of Iraq as “brutal” and “unjustified” before realizing his mistake and correcting to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to a report from Reuters, the 43rd president, who is 75 years old, was discussing Russia’s political system when the gaffe occurred.
“The result is an absence of checks and balances in Russia, and the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean, of Ukraine,” Bush said.
Bush blamed the mix-up on his age and the audience responded with laughter.
Video of the mistake was widely circulated on social media. A tweet from Dallas Morning News reporter Michael Williams containing the video had been shared nearly 7,000 times as of Thursday morning.
In 2003, when Bush was president, the U.S. led an air and land invasion of Iraq that marked the first stage of the Iraq War. The aim was to “disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction." However, a UN inspection team said it had located no evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq prior to the invasion.