US president Joe Biden has committed another gaffe to the public record. In the course of an interview with MSNBC on Saturday Biden said that Washington had made a mistake by going into Ukraine when in fact he was referring to the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Biden had meant to offer criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, by ignoring civilian casualties during the IDF’s military operation in Gaza, is “hurting Israel more than he’s helping Israel.”
The US leader recalled how, during his visit to Israel early in the conflict, he had warned Netanyahu against making a “mistake” that the US made after 9/11.
“America made a mistake. We went after Osama bin Laden until we got him, but we shouldn’t have gone into Ukraine…” the 81-year-old said.
According to the latest data from the Gaza health ministry, 31,045 people have been killed and 72,654 others wounded since October 7, after which the IDF began its attacks on the Palestinian enclave in response to the Hamas incursion into Israel, in which an estimated 1,200 people lost their lives and over 200 were taken hostage.
The president quickly corrected himself, saying: “We shouldn’t have gone into the whole thing in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Those military campaigns by the US “caused more problems than they cured,” he added.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova infused the subject with sarcasm, suggesting that Moscow actually disagreed with reporting in the media that Biden had simply confused Ukraine with Iraq and Afghanistan.
“He didn’t mix it up. He can no longer retain to himself what everyone understands – the US have disgraced themselves in the bloodiest manner with the whole Ukrainian project,” she wrote on Telegram on Sunday.
After repelling Ukraine’s counteroffensive last year, Russian forces have been steadily improving frontline positions, capturing the strategic stronghold of Avdeevka in Russia’s People’s Republic of Donetsk last month, and several other settlements.
Washington has been Ukraine’s primary backer since the escalation to armed confrontation in February 2022 of long-simmering conflicts between Moscow and Kiev, and has provided over $111 billion in military and financial assistance. However, in recent months, US aid has subsided drastically as the Biden administration struggles to overcome Republican resistance to its efforts to push through another $60-billion for Ukraine.
It’s not the first time that Biden has confused countries and places. In June, he said that “Putin is losing the war in Iraq.” In a more recent blunder, he said a week ago that the US and partners were discussing “airdrops of food and supplies into Ukraine,” while actually meaning proposed airdrops into Gaza.