In response to “What is more reckless than an act of war that gains us nothing?” — the March 12 opinion piece by Liam Madden in VTDigger — I just don’t know where to begin.
I agree that the war going on in Ukraine is frightening (frightening for the people of Ukraine most of all). The person responsible for bringing the threat of World War III or even a nuclear clash is not President Biden, as Mr. Madden has indicated, but Vladimir Putin. The threat of Putin’s expansionism has awakened a sleepy NATO and has motivated North Macedonia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Finland, Georgia, Sweden and Ukraine to apply for membership in recent years to NATO. NATO’s origin was spurred by the ruthless, brutal takeover of European countries that created the USSR.
Madden highlights the recent sabotage of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, claiming Biden responsibility and citing an article by an investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who in the past has had some sensational exposes that had significant basis in verifiable fact. The Nord Stream accusation, authored by Hersh in his Substack blog, offers no such verification, only “an anonymous source,” which has been a recent pattern for Hersh and is why most other news media won’t buy into it. True or not, it is a fascinating story.
Certainly, the U.S. has the means to do it and the opportunity, but so do many other governments and entities. Yes, many (U.S. included) governments and officials were happy to see Nord Stream 2 temporarily disabled. Further, Hersh claims that the plan was set in motion prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Hersh also says that the pipeline destruction was devised, in part, to help ensure that European nations would not abandon Ukraine.
That is a stretch of logic. Europe supports Ukraine because they see Russia’s invasion as a direct threat to Europe. The reason that no other media outlets, with all of their resources, have not come up with their version of “who done it” is that there is no clear culprit and that the supposed motives don’t add up. The answer to the question of responsibility is yet to come.
Don’t use this as an opportunity to create another unfounded conspiracy theory. In the meantime, the scenario told in Hersh’s blog would make the basis for a riveting action adventure script.
Paul Drayman
Irasburg