Sleepwalking to Armageddon
Why so little interest in who sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines — when Joe Biden promised to do just that sort of thing?
by George Parry
February 26, 2023, 10:39 PM
On Feb. 7, 2022, as Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s border, President Joe Biden held a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. One of the topics raised by reporters was Europe’s massive dependence on natural gas transmitted through undersea pipelines from Russia. At the time of the press conference, there were two such pipelines: the operational Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, which was completed in 2021 but awaiting approval by German regulators.
The silence of official Washington — Democrat and Republican alike — has been deafening.
If Germany approved Nord Stream 2, the amount of low-cost Russian gas flowing to Germany and Western Europe would be doubled. This was properly viewed as a major potential source of income for Russia as well as a gaping hole in any economic sanctions to be imposed should Russia invade Ukraine.
So, in the event of invasion, what was the United States prepared to do?
“If Russia invades, that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine again,” Biden told the assembled reporters, “then there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”
When asked how the U.S. could put an “end” to Nord Stream 2, Biden responded, “I promise you, we will be able to do it.”
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https://spectator.org/sleepwalking-to-armageddon/
