[labster]

That’s because there are no reasons for the US to do it. Europe is staying aligned just fine right now. Germans think Russia is an unreliable business partner, and don’t want to deal with them again. Germany is already expanding LNG port capacity to buy more North American gas. It would be a tremendous risk to be discovered; Denmark could trigger Article 5 against the United States. The US needs to show strength in Asia, not that it’s entangled in European affairs. It’s all too much malarkey for Dark Brandon to tolerate.

[MichaelCollins]

> Europe is staying aligned just fine right now.

Sure, right now. When the winter comes and heating bills skyrocket, there will be those in Germany who want to turn the gas back on. Or... would have been. That option is gone now, at least for this winter. That's what the US might have gotten out of it.

> It would be a tremendous risk to be discovered

The US has taken more severe risks before, such as tapping the undersea cables in the territorial waters of their nuclear armed adversary during the Cold War, in principle risking global nuclear annihilation. The primary rule clandestine submarine operations play by is "don't get caught". If the US did it and did it properly, nothing will ever be conclusively pinned on America.

> Denmark could trigger Article 5 against the United States.

Fantasy scenario, get real.

[pydry]

>That’s because there are no reasons for the US to do it.

As said before, it would be to prevent Germany from caving and turning the taps back on in winter when they are desperate for gas.

[davrosthedalek]

But why now? There is no wavering at the moment. They could have waited a month or two, to see if it's actually needed, because the downside of discovery is so high. And why does the CIA warn about attacks then? False flag?

Another option is that somebody wanted to plant explosive devices for future use, and something went wrong. Hard to see how both pipelines would blow up then, but maybe a possibility.

[pydry]

If Germany and Russia were about to kick off negotiations to bring nordstream back online then it would all but confirm that an ally did it (probably America). This would be far more likely to happen next month as Germany really starts to suffer.

Whoever did it picked pretty much the perfect time from the perspective of deniability.

[foverzar]

> It would be a tremendous risk to be discovered;

This isn't really a counterpoint, since it's all the same risk for every potential suspect.

[shswkna]

Your argumentation is missing a crucial event, which threatens USA’s position: The win of a right wing party in Italy. If this trend continues in Europe, then a friendly disposition of Europe towards Russia becomes probable. If this happens, it would threaten the core geopolitical interests of USA. It would also become lonely around the USA.

Its not what I want but an attempt at an unbiased assessment.