[Vermont Lt]

I don’t think Russia is THAT stupid.

[Zhang Fei]

[I don’t think Russia is THAT stupid.]

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That’s not stupid. People have apocalyptic visions of American retaliation. In real life, various countries have done all kinds of things without any serious response. And it’s not even unique to the US. Here’s a list of things where either no or minimal response resulted:

(1) the attack on the Panay by Imperial Japan
(2) the taking of the Pueblo by North Korea
(3) the taking of the Mayaguez by Cambodia
(4) the Russian shootdown of KAL007, which killed a Congressman and 63 Americans
(5) the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center by bin Laden

Taking out an oil pipeline is a footnote, relative to those other things. And many of these other countries lacked any serious ability to retaliate if the US decided to, for instance, burn their hometowns to the ground.