The US denial was completely dystopian from the get-go. Obviously Putin would not mess with his own profit margins or compromise his energy leverage over Germany and the EU in general. Later on, Seymour Hersh, who is certainly no slouch and no shill, puts some additional detail on the obvious, for all the good it did for the cnn-addled. Did we even need to see the archival footage of Biden promising to kill the pipeline if Russia invaded Ukraine? Apparently not, as the obvious is now unthinkable in this age of hyper-normalized nonthink. Does this mean Putin is great and we should leave Ukraine to be obliterated? No, stupid. It just means that "we" too are using bald-arse gummint propaganda to pass over our ruthlessness. Should we fight Russia down to the last Ukrainian? That's the tough and interesting question. Did we blow the heck out of Nordstream in order to corner Germany and the EU into involuntarily backing us? Hell yes we did!