Washington, Sept.26 : U.S. President George W Bush is in dire need of an English teacher, even as his eight year presidency is close to winding up.

It is a known fact that his presidency has been marred often by verbal faux pax that has left audiences round the world quite embarrassed and some smirking with laughter.

If there is anyone who needs lessons in English phonetics, it has to be this Texan with a twang in his voice.

Mangled pronunciation and a peripatetic search for appropriate words to project his message provide an insight into his struggle.

On Tuesday, the White House mistakenly released an unedited script of his speech to the UN General Assembly.

The speech featured contortions of words such as “nuclear”, “misunderestimate” and once forgetting the name of President Musharraf of Pakistan.

The unedited text, according to The Times, reveals that Bush is coached not only on far-flung foreign places such as “KEYR-geez-stan” but also the name of his new French ally, President “sar-KO-zee”.

He, however, received no aid with the pronunciation of the Burmese opposition leader, and duly stumbled when he tried to pronounce “Aung San Suu Kyi”.

David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter, told The Times that all presidential speeches contained phonetic guides, but passing the unedited version to the press was an “oversight”.

The accidental release of the pronunciation guide marred an otherwise eloquent address to the 192-nation UN General Assembly.

Bush urged member states to join in a “mission of liberation” and predicted that “the long rule of a cruel dictator is nearing its end” in Cuba.

Making only a passing reference to the war in Iraq, Bush salutes “young democracies” in Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan, and calls on the world to support the “moderate” leaders of the Palestinian lands.

He warns extremists not to try to impose a “hateful vision” on the world, though he does not mention the al-Qaeda by name.

“In the long run the best way to defeat extremists is to defeat their dark ideology with a more hopeful vision – the vision of liberty,” he is quoted, as saying.
Bush excoriates the “brutal regimes” in Belarus, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Zimbabwe and looks ahead to the end of Fidel Castro’s rule.

“The Cuban people are ready for their freedom,” he said. “As that nation enters a period of transition, the UN must insist on free speech, free assembly and, ultimately, free and competitive elections,” he says in his speech.

This prompted the Cuban delegation to walk out, calling Bush’s speech “arrogant and mediocre”.

Most of the American delegation left the room when Iranian President Ahmadinejad rose to speak about his country’s nuclear programme, which he termed as “completely peaceful and transparent”.

The major powers had “lost the competence to lead the world,” the Iranian leader further declared. (With inputs from ANI)