That quote you gave is awfully misleading, as Bush was not speaking about flight 655. Ronald Reagan, the actual president at the time, did apologize a few days

That quote you gave is awfully misleading, as Bush was not speaking about flight 655. Ronald Reagan, the actual president at the time, did apologize a few days after the event. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1988/07/06/reagan-apologized-to-iran-for-downing-of-jetliner/9523c6dc-a244-4b3b-90e9-054168d98c79/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1988/07/06/r... If you really want to compare the two events, note that after ~4 hours after the event the US did acknowledge it had shot down the airline. While it did to continue to maintain it wasn't in the wrong, there's a stark difference between that & the multi-day denial of Iran.