George W. Bush has put his foot in it.
He made the unfortunate slip up - which has quickly gone viral on social media - while presenting to crowds at the Southern Methodist University on Wednesday, May 18.
The former US president was speaking to audiences in Dallas about the future of American elections when he accidentally referred to the invasion of Iraq as "unjustified and brutal".
Bush was in the middle of condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin's attack on Ukraine when he accidentally reminded audiences of the US' 2003 invasion of Iraq - an issue that many of Bush's political opponents strongly criticized him for.
"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," Bush said.
He quickly realized his mistake and corrected himself, saying: "I mean - of Ukraine." Bush added under his breath: "Iraq... anyway," prompting laughter from the audience.
The audience was even more amused when he went on to try and blame his slip up on his age, saying: "Anyway, I'm 75."
While Bush may have won over the crowd in Dallas, people on social media have been less forgiving. Since a clip of the moment was tweeted by Dallas Morning News reporter Michael Williams on Wednesday, it has been viewed over 25 million times.
"Man just revealed to the world how he sees himself. Ghosts of Iraq will never stop haunting him," one person tweeted, while another wrote: "[Sigmund] Freud really stepped out of his grave to personally slap the 'Iraq' out of Bush’s mouth didn’t he."
Others weren't amused by the moment but outraged that Bush had the nerve to joke about the Iraq war. "There are literally Iraqis still dying *today* because of Bush's decision to illegally invade Iraq nearly 20 years ago," one person said on Twitter.
The US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was part of a series of post 9/11 conflicts in the Middle East.
Bush justified sending American troops into the country on the grounds that Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction. Over the almost decade-long war, no such weapons were ever found. Thousands of US troops and Iraqi civilians were killed amid the conflict.
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