Everyone has by now heard of the latest blunder by former US President and unconvicted war criminal George W Bush, father of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and other fantastically bloody escapades.

In a recent speech at his own George W Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas, Bush condemned the “lack of checks and balances” in Vladimir Putin’s Russia that allowed “one man to launch an invasion totally unjustified and brutal of Iraq”. .

Quickly realizing his not-really-mistaken, Bush corrected himself: “I mean, Ukraine” – but added lightly under his breath: “Iraq, too, anyway.” The spectacle drew mirthful laughter from the audience, as did Bush’s later attribution of the Iraq-Ukraine confusion to his age: “Seventy-five.”

To be sure, the language-impaired ex-head of state has long made people laugh with his so-called “Bushisms,” which over the years have included the following particular statements: “I know how how difficult it is for you to feed your family. ”; “I know that human beings and fish can coexist peacefully”; “They underestimated me”; and “The question is seldom asked: are our children learning?”

But the actual annihilation of a nation is no joke. Ditto for the reduction to a split second “Iraq, too, anyway” of hundreds of thousands of deaths, countless massacres of Iraqi civilians, the forced displacement of millions of people, and the saturation of the country with toxic substances. and radioactive munitions that continue to cause birth defects, cancers and all sorts of other illnesses nearly two decades after the launch of the “totally unjustified and brutal invasion”.

One can imagine the horror that would ensue if a non-white non-Western made a joke about, say, the September 11 attacks, or some other event that pales in comparison – in terms of human and material destruction – with the war in Iraq. Bush and his audience, on the other hand, are under imperial law permitted to sneer at a reference to the mass murder of non-white non-Westerns as if it were merely an example of the humor of self-mockery on the part of the old imperialism. commander in chief.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Bush has unwittingly said something deeply revealing about his own belligerence. There was this time in 2006, for example, when he remarked in an interview with CBS Evening News, “You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is connecting Iraq to the war on terrorism “.

It also happens to not be the first time he has joked about the whole premise of the war in Iraq. In 2004, during the annual cringe known as the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Bush narrated a slide show with a photo of himself peering under the furniture in the Oval Office: “These weapons of mass destruction must be here somewhere. part,” he joked to applause and laughter.

This, remember, was just a year after the outbreak of a war that was supposed to save the world from the apocalyptic threat of Iraq’s alleged WMD arsenal. In an April 2004 dispatch for The Nation, titled Laughing With Bush, David Corn – then the magazine’s Washington editor – called out the president for his “performance” at the Correspondents’ Dinner and the attendees for their careless response.

Before an “audience of people who are supposed to spend their days searching for the truth,” Corn wrote, “Bush joked about the inaccuracies (if not lies) he used to persuade (if not deceive) the American people and the media”.

In other words, the whole situation was itself a joke – although not funny at all.

The Correspondents’ Dinner has also hosted other episodes of presidential humor – which weren’t – including in 2010 when then-President Barack Obama set out to announce that members of the Jonas Brothers band were present at the scene and that his daughters Sasha and Malia were “big fans”.

Obama continued, “But boys, don’t get your mind around it. I have two words for you: Predator Drones. You’ll never see it coming.” After a pause to allow for laughter and applause, the president received even more laughter with the line, “You think I’m kidding.”

Never mind that US military drones were then, as now, notoriously associated with the indiscriminate killing of civilians in various foreign countries. Ultimately, these presidential punchlines achieve the kind of barbarity disguised as banality that reflexively tickles America’s funny bone.

Meanwhile, despite the ongoing hustle and bustle surrounding the threat of weapons of mass destruction, American leaders often seem to find the very concept of mass destruction downright hilarious. Remember that morning in August 1984 when Ronald Reagan went into prankster mode for the microphone check preceding his live radio broadcast: “My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you today that I have signed a law that will outlaw Russia forever. We start bombing in five minutes.”

American allies also share a similar sense of humor and wit, not to mention microphone issues. In July 2006, at the G8 conference in Russia, an unattended microphone picked up banter between Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his staunch accomplice in the quest to obliterate Iraq.

It was less than a week after the latest effort by Israel – another imperial accomplice – to obliterate Lebanon via a 34-day bombing campaign that ultimately killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Bush addressed his counterpart, “Yo, Blair,” and, according to the transcript of the conversation on the BBC’s website, the couple had a good laugh over Blair’s all-important jumper question. offered to Bush:

Bush: “I know you chose it yourself.”

Blair: “Oh absolutely – actually, I knit it!”

The duo then discussed the bloodshed in Lebanon, which Bush believed could be solved not by getting Israel to stop massacring people, but rather by getting the Lebanese Hezbollah organization – which , logically, retaliated – “to stop doing that s** *”.

Fast forward to the Iraq-I mean-Ukraine gaffe of 2022 at the George W Bush Presidential Center in Dallas – the “totally unwarranted and brutal” decimation of a country condensed into a single imperial foolishness – and we find ourselves wishing let everything stop.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.