[syzarian]

The U.S. shot down an Iranian passenger airliner and promoted the Navy captain who was in charge of the ship that did it. U.S. fighter pilots accidentally killed 20 people in Italy because they wanted to showboat. The Soviet Union shot down a Korean passenger airliner.

One does not go to war over such incidents unless you are already looking for an excuse to do so.

[CamperBob2]

That said, we took responsibility for the Vincennes accident and paid reparations, as I recall. I wonder if Russia will ever do that much to compensate the Dutch.

[syzarian]

A typical American reaction is to feel less outrage or feel absolved so long as we gave victims money. I say this as an American. The DOD initially lied about the events. We did not in any meaningful way take responsibility. We didn’t court martial any of the officers involved and the Vincennes received a combat action ribbon for that day.

[throwaway8689]

Lots of societies around the world have a tradition of 'blood money' in the sense of financial compensation for killing or other serious harm. It's not surprising to find that kind of thinking in America since it is a society comprised of migrants from all over the world.

[CamperBob2]

That said, we took responsibility for the Vincennes accident and paid reparations, as I recall. I wonder if Russia will ever do that much to compensate the Dutch.

[mistermann]

I wonder if the US will do the same for their adventures in the middle East in the last few decades.

In a serious culture we could discuss these things using spreadsheets and data using strict epistemology, but in this culture we mostly discuss them in simplistic, cherry picked, "just so" stories, and pile on anyone who dares to step outside the Overton Window of consensus "truth".