Posted on 09/27/2022 2:03:45 PM PDT by dennisw
I have no idea who did this. Hats off to you for your high level military service, that many-most here are aware of.
My out of left field theory is a dissident Russian faction did this damage.
It’s not very deep. But no matter. Russia, America and many other nations have mini-subs capable of the mission. Just zip on down and place a mine on the pipeline.
It ain’t rocket surgery. MUCH easier than building, maintaining etc undersea gas platforms, pipelines etc.
Any private company that can do this work underwater, can plonk a mine next to a pipeline MUCH more easily. MUCH.
And so can any of the nations with naval special warfare capabilities.
So forget about big ocean-going subs. Too shallow and restricted for them. And for the moment, forget about free-swimming combat divers.
That leaves an entire universe of wet and dry mini-subs. That can even be let loose from and recovered by “civilian” ships, all underwater, all unseen.
This is NOT rocket surgery. This is super simple, if you have the assets, like a “civilian” underwater project support ship, and frogmen, civilian or military.
In basketball terms, this is an easy layup with nobody near you.
All it takes is a national leader to give the order, and it’ll happen.
If Russia were to cut pipelines in the Baltic Sea it would damage those that bring Norwegian gas to Europe, not the pipelines it owns and which give it some leverage.
Russia thus surely has no plausible interest in sabotaging the Nord Stream system. Others though do have such interests. They likely want Germany to 'stay in line' with their war to Decolonize Russia. The major potential actors behind this are the U.S., the British, the Ukrainian and the Polish government or a mixture of those.
Geography, and the shallow depth of the Baltic Sea, seem to exclude that a U.S. or British submarines did the damage. Ukraine does not have access to the Baltic Sea. Poland, which had already tried to prevent or hinder the Nord Stream II construction, is the most likely actor behind this though I doubt that it would dare to act alone.
vs shutting it off... man that’s just mean
sorry, but I can't seem to make the above link operative. It shows USS Kearsage positioning a few days ago before the booms.
Why not lizard people from a secret base in Antarctica?
CUI BONO?
Who kills his own golden goose??
THINK!
Why would Putin blow up the pipeline? He just had to shut off the gas.
That would put Russia is in breach of contract and subject to fines, allegedly. Russia badly needs a crisis with NATO to justify its bumbling of its war and genocide in Ukraine. The natives there are getting restless and flooding neighboring countries.
Have you forgotten Trump didn’t want NS2? In fact he sanctioned NS2 while Biden lifted them after Germany requested it.
If the pipeline was from Russia, why wouldn’t they just turn it off?
We are at the point now where some kind of mistake or miscalculation could easily ignite a serious conflict. Or worse.
The tensions and steady escalations have proliferated under Biden. That’s just a fact.
Leadership matters.
1) The Russians did it, even though it cuts their throat economically in the long run.
2) The pipeline failed due to lack of use. That is definitely a thing. Also FWIW my first thought.
3) On purpose, but not the Russians.
[Anybody old enough to remember the CIA-sponsored "Glomar Explorer," entirely built with a cover story about picking up "magnesium nodules" from the Pacific seafloor, but actually meant to lift a sunk Soviet sub?]
Poland agrees!
Like the US in Afghanistan and pretty much every other war?:)
Bullshit. See the golden goose story above.
Please see 24.
It all seems deliberate.
What's your point? Trump was constantly warning Europe about relying on Russian n. gas.
It's BIDEN who said he'd cut it off.
Vladimir Putin.
NOW if Putin is:
If Putin is in extremis, if he is facing ultimatums at home, if he knows that he has run out his string militarily and 300,000 more bodies of cannon fodder will avail him nothing, he might well be desperate for negotiations. What better way to bring Europe to the negotiating table than freezing Europe?
By blowing up the pipeline rather than simply turning off the tap, Putin permits his apologists to plausibly assert that it was done by Biden, or Ukraine thus evading recriminations for willfully turning off the flow of gas and freezing Europe. Harder to negotiate with people who believe you have deliberately frozen them half to death and ruined their economy.
Who benefits? Vladimir Putin!
Instead of missiles flying over the north pole, [easily tracked, then with a retaliatory missile fired], it's going to be infrastructure demolition tit for tat, all denied.
Not only natural gas, but about 90% of the internet goes by fiber-optic undersea cable.
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