Sabotage of the Nord Stream Pipeline Brings Us Closer Than Ever to Nuclear War
In a week chock-full of alarming headlines, the worst might be the imminence of nuclear war and—in the face of this threat—our leaders’ arrogance and our population’s ignorance. During the Cold War, we did everything in our power to avoid an escalation that could lead to a hot war. Today, Biden and our reckless western leaders have rushed us to the brink of nuclear destruction, and no one seems to care.
Background
The Ukraine conflict never should have mushroomed into a worldwide crisis. It was a regional conflict in which the United States had no strategic interest, and it should have been resolved quickly. We could have easily facilitated that peace process, but instead we threw gasoline on the flames.
Russia is a nuclear power, and the sole goal of the West should have been (and should still be) to deescalate this war and bring about peace. Instead, the West immediately attempted regime change—the most dangerous play imaginable—and has continued relentlessly toward this goal even as the Ukrainian and Russian people have been consumed by the horrors of war.
In pursuit of his wholly illegitimate ends, President Biden weaponized the dollar against Putin when he excluded Russia from SWIFT (the international payment and settlement system). Despite the seeming lethality of that action, Biden grossly miscalculated. Although it cut Putin off from the western financial system, it did not succeed in destroying the Russian economy or toppling Putin’s administration.
Instead, the United States weakened its own position as the global reserve currency and dangerously isolated Russia from the rest of the West. Among other countermeasures, Putin began demanding payment for Russian gas in rubles. Many companies in desperate, energy-starved Europe had to acquiesce, and Russia not only propped up its financial system but began the first steps in moving major transactions away from the U.S. dollar—a disaster for the United States.
Despite these deadly blunders for the West, our leaders have stoked the conflict. Most shockingly, Boris Johnson—at the behest of the United States—secretly scuttled a peace deal tentatively agreed to between Ukraine and Russia in April of this year. You read that right—Ukraine and Russia were ready to lay down their arms in April and the United States and Britain goaded them on toward further destruction.
Putin is fully aware he is really fighting the United States and its western allies. The threadbare veil that allegedly hides this reality gets more strained by the day. The more desperate Russia becomes the closer we—homeland America—inch toward a nuclear conflagration.
In a significant televised broadcast on September 21, 2022, Vladimir Putin announced an immediate partial military mobilization (a draft) and threatened the West with nuclear war. The communist leader said:
“I want to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction, and for separate components and more modern than those of NATO countries and when the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, to protect Russia and our people, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal.”
He underscored his point with the chilling assurance: “It’s not a bluff.”
We are closer to nuclear war today than we have ever been in our history. It is horrifying to think our leaders today are brazenly provoking Putin to unleash hell that will kill millions.
But the story gets worse.
Sabotage—An Act of War
On Monday, September 26, both the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines were sabotaged. These are natural gas pipelines that are owned by Russian state-controlled Gazprom. They run from Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany. Nord Stream 1 had been operational, although Russia had reduced the flow in recent months. Due to sanctions and pressure from the United States, Germany had refused to permit Nord Stream 2 to start delivery, although it had natural gas in it at the time of the sabotage.
Swedish and Danish seismologists confirmed that powerful blasts caused the leaks. The points of sabotage are just 12 nautical miles off the coast of the Danish island Bornholm at a depth of 300 feet.
Of course, the world is now wondering, who did this? Although the mainstream media is assuring the American public that Russia sabotaged its own profitable and strategic pipelines, quite a few people feel very strongly that all the evidence points to the United States.
After all, why would Russia sabotage its own pipelines? Nord Stream was built despite strong opposition from the United States, Poland, and Ukraine. This was partly due to concerns that Europe would be too dependent on Russia for energy, but it was also because Nord Stream allowed Russia to avoid paying transport costs to Ukraine and Poland, and made Germany—already the strongest European economy—all the stronger.
Why would Russia—in the midst of a difficult war in Ukraine—sabotage its source of influence in Europe? As Tucker Carlson pointed out on his program, Putin needs all the money he can get and all the influence he can leverage right now. As Europe races toward a cold winter, the pipelines were important sources of income for Putin and leverage over Europe.
If Putin wanted to turn the screws on Germany and Europe, he could have simply turned off the flow, as he has done before. There was no need to explode his own costly and hard-won pipelines.
In fact, Putin wanted Germany to lift sanctions and permit Nord Stream 2 to go into operation. On his excellent Substack, Michael Shellenberger noted:
Russia has made no secret of its desire to continue supplying Europe with natural gas. On September 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin denied Russia caused Europe's energy crisis and said that if Europe wanted more natural gas it should lift the sanctions in the way of opening Nord Stream 2. "The bottom line is,” said Putin, “if you have an urge, if it’s so hard for you, just lift the sanctions on Nord Stream 2, which is 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year, just push the button and everything will get going.”
Many American observers are deeply suspicious of the United States. By now, almost everyone following this story has seen the clip of President Joe Biden warning in February 2022 that if Russia invaded Ukraine there would be no Nord Stream:
Speaking at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Biden said, "If Russia invades... again, then there will be no longer Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it." When asked how he would do that, he responded, "I promise you we will be able to do it."
Victoria Nuland issued a similarly cryptic message just the month before when she told reporters: “If Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.”
Multiple commentators have pointed out that the Americans and the British did not want a German/Russian rapprochement. As winter approaches and energy prices cripple the German people, protests have broken out demanding that the government lift sanctions. The Nord Stream sabotage took the incentive for reconciliation between Germany and Russia off the table and positioned Poland to rise as a stronger leader on the continent.
Interestingly, the sabotage occurred on the day that the Baltic Pipe opened. The Baltic Pipe is a pipeline that will now supply gas from Norway to Denmark and Poland. Nord Stream would have been its competition. Even more interesting, just three months ago, the United States conducted military exercises in the waters where the sabotage occurred. The military exercises were testing underwater explosive devices.
Whatever we may believe the truth is, what Putin believes is what is most dangerous. On Friday, September 30, Putin declared in a speech announcing the annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia that “Anglo-Saxons” blew up the pipelines.
The sabotage of Russia’s multi-billion dollar pipelines is, of course, a serious act of war.
In another address to his country and the world on September 30, Putin declared that the end of western hegemony is inevitable. The speech was a screed focused on the United States—on our corruption, our depravity, our rapaciousness. It was a speech of a man preparing for conflict. Later at the state-sponsored rally in Red Square celebrating the annexation, a speaker shouted “fear us people of the world!” He called for immediate action; he called for a holy war. As commentator Konstantin Kisin noted, nothing is said at these rallies without approval from the top of the chain of command.
It is absolutely the reality that every day draws us closer to nuclear war with Russia. The pressure is building with each new escalation. And as I say, the super majority of the American people seem blithely unaware of the looming doom. We had better wake up our neighbors quickly. Please tell your family and friends—anyone who isn’t aware. Time seems to be running short.