When Bad Things Are Caused by Good Nations

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Social psychologists use the term "cognitive dissonance" for the anxiety caused when facts conflict with deeply held beliefs. Americans appear to have responded to the cognitive dissonance triggered by the Iranian airbus disaster by stifling both moral responsibility and collective grief. A Washington Post- ABC News poll found that 74% of those surveyed believe that Iran is more to blame than the U.S. for the destruction of Flight 655. Certainly this reaction was compounded by the role that Iran plays in American demonology. Nine years of demonstrators in Tehran chanting "Death to America!" have fueled an emotional climate where 290 dead Iranians are deemed unworthy of genuine mourning, even when they are chance victims of a wayward American missile.

The Pentagon rushed a six-member oversight team to the Persian Gulf to review the Vincennes' procedures and performance. The rationale for the inquiry is clear: If the Vincennes correctly adhered to the rules of engagement, how could America possibly be blamed for the tragedy? But such bureaucratic reasoning and reflexive faith in systematic procedures fails to countenance that sometimes -- in a disorderly world -- grand intentions produce grotesque results.

Central to the American character is a litigious mind-set that cannot acknowledge blame without worrying about legal liability. Before the passengers on Flight 655 were even buried, Washington policymakers were locked in a distracting wrangle over whether to pay damages. The questionable notion that some form of monetary compensation to the victims' families could assuage Iran's grief was advanced by House Speaker Jim Wright and Republican Senator John Warner. The Administration has agreed to study the possibility of such payments, and the President is leaning strongly in favor of them. The primary obstacle appears to be political: 61% of those polled oppose such payments.

The destruction of the Iranian airbus should, by rights, lead to some form of searing national soul-searching. Whatever the provocation, whatever the perceived danger, whatever the rectitude of America's mission in the gulf, it was the Vincennes that fatally fired. The captain, who was only following proper procedures, may be free of personal fault. But no matter how understandable each of the Navy's actions, the fact remains that a string of American decisions created a situation that led to the shooting down of the Iranian airbus.

But judging from the denial and drift last week, the nation seems on the verge of endorsing the premise that the death of 290 civilians warrants only conditional and begrudging apologies. Because the U.S. did not intend for those people to be killed, many Americans seem to be saying, it is thus not at fault that they were. If so, Independence Day Weekend 1988 may be remembered as that moment when Americans declared their independence from the moral consequences of misadventure.