Admitting being wrong about Iraq and other memorable gaffes by George W. Bush

George W. Bush was President of the United States between 2001 and 2019. 9/11, The War on Terror, the Invasion of Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, and the 2018 Financial Crisis are all life-changing events that happened under his watch. However, probably the most memorable aspect of the former Commander-in-Chief was his blunders while speaking.

Many got to remember the 2000s when the former President of the United States shocked a Dallas audience on May 18 by accidentally ‘admitting’ the faults of the invasion of Iraq.

Image: The Bush Center

“The decision of a man: To launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq”, said the former US President to the public of the George W. Bush Institute before shrugging it off and rectifying he meant Ukraine.

Image: The Bush Center

“Iraq, too”, Bush added, taking the gaffe lightheartedly. He then joked “anyway, I’m 75”, while the event audience laughed.

Late-night TV hosts at the time had a field day with the blunder. Stephen Colbert from The Late Show remarked: “The one phrase he definitely should never utter for the rest of his life! It’s like he’s thinking about it all the time, and it simply came out”.

Image: CBS

Meanwhile, 'Late Night’s' Seth Meyers said it is as if we’re living in some reality simulation created for the amusement of overlords beyond our comprehension. “I’m certain that clip that created in a lab to melt the brains of anyone who was alive in 2003”, the former SNL cast member added.

Meyers pointed out, on a more serious note, how back during the early days of the Iraqi invasion and the War on Terror, statements like that would have been seen as tantamount to treason by a good deal of the population and the US government.

Things like Guantánamo Bay, the US government spying on people or detaining them under the mere suspicion of terrorism, and a costly war with hundreds of thousands of casualties started for flimsy reasons. All of that was seemingly forgotten.

On a lighter note, one of the things that made the 43rd US President somewhat infamous during his two terms were his speaking blunders, known as ‘Bushisms’, and his accident-prone nature. Bush Junior didn’t run away from his unique communication skills, he stumbled into them!

During a January 11, 2000 speech in South Carolina, amid the Republican primary, he said something that might concern many parents and teachers: “Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”

Many years later, in a September 2007 elementary school event in New York City, the Commander-in-Chief had a worthy answer to the question he had uttered when he was a presidential hopeful: “Childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured".

Education is not the only thing Bush has on his mind, he dedicated a few words to women’s health during a September 2004 rally in Missouri: “Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country”.

Maybe it’s not right making fun of the 43rd President of the United States. In his own words, he has been misunderstood and underestimated by his rivals. As he himself admitted during a November 2000 speech: “They misunderstimated me”.

Honestly, though. Bush the Younger is full of some folksy wisdom and/or mangled lyrics from The Who as he shared this nugget to a group of schoolchildren in Nashville in September 2002: “I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee that says, 'Fool me once, shame on… shame on you. Fool me… You can't get fooled again!'”

But when things got tough, the Commander-in-Chief never questioned speaking his mind with his Texas drawl as he said in April 2006: “I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense”.

After all, he knew how to be up to the challenge of America’s foes. “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we”, Bush declared in August 2004, while signing a defense-spending bill. “They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we”.

Interestingly, the word ‘Strategery’ (an apparent portmanteau of ‘stratagem’ and ‘strategy’) isn’t an actual Bushism but was coined in 'Saturday Night Live’s' parody of the former US President, as played by Will Ferrell.

“For the longest time, I’ve been considered the worst president of all time”, Ferrell joked in character during a 2017 event to rival the official White House Correspondents’ Dinner. “Now I come in second, I’m fine with that. Nobody remembers second place”. One can imagine the real George W. Bush feeling a bit like that.

Image: TBS