Jeffrey Sachs: Of Course the US Blew Up Nord Stream 2
'If you followed the US for the last five decades, actually six decades from Vietnam onward, you know a lot about this.'
I recently wrote an article that explored Seymour Hersh’s claim that the United States government blew up the Nord Stream pipeline.
While we don’t yet know if this claim is true, I believe it likely is.
For one, I have more reasons to believe Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, than the US government. And as I pointed out before, Biden’s own cryptic statements seem to suggest his intention to eliminate the pipeline—one way or another—if Russia invaded Ukraine.
Many people seemed shocked at the suggestion that the US government would take a military action of this kind, which suggests to me they haven’t been paying much attention the what the US government has been doing the last 70 years or so.
As readers know, I’m currently reading The Devil’s Chessboard by David Talbot, which chronicles the history of the CIA and its longtime chief, Allen Dulles. Even for people deeply suspicious of the state and the US intelligence apparatus, it’s an eye-opening book. For decades, the CIA and other US agencies have quietly played their own geopolitical games of this kind, complete with political coups, assassinations, torture, covert military operations, and corrupt political machinations. (It’s worth noting that Dulles, while he was working for the CIA, helped launch Richard Nixon’s military career.)
One person who does know this history is Jeffrey Sachs, the bestselling author, economist, for United Nations advisor, and longtime professor at Columbia University. On a recent appearance on UnHerd, Sachs shows he’s done his homework, tracing the US government’s longtime opposition to the Nord Stream lines, which strengthened ties between Russian and Germany, and its successful effort to overthrow the Ukrainian government in February 2014.
These efforts, Sachs notes, were all part of the US government’s attempt to move NATO eastward to further isolate Russia, which eventually led to civil war in Ukraine.
“It started with a US supported insurrection, and then of course it became deeply militarized,” said Sachs.
The conflict in Ukraine led to great pressure on Germany (from American neocons in government, Sachs says) to stop trading with Russia. But Germany resisted because it enjoys Russia’s cheap natural gas.
Still, as UnHerd executive editor Freddie Sayers challenged Sachs, it’s hard for everyday people to believe the US government would destroy a vital pieces of public infrastructure that is partially owned by one of its NATO allies.
“Well, then they don’t really know the US,” Sachs replied.
“If you followed the US for the last five decades, actually six decades from Vietnam onward, you know a lot about this. This is what happens when you have a secret intelligence unit, the CIA, which carries out covert operations. That’s there job. Presidents give orders, they do all sorts of things. They make coups, they create civil unrest, they create ‘revolutions,’ they blow up infrastructure. It’s part of the job, and it’s actually quite well known.”
Asked how he’s so sure the US is behind the sabotage, Sachs laughed.
“Frankly, it’s been obvious from the start,” he replied. “This was not an easy operation to carry out. It’s the kind operation the CIA and other covert parts of the US government do carry out rather routinely.”
He’s right. And while we don’t know for certain yet who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines, it’s past time Americans started to learn the truth about the CIA.