If you want to start a myth, make it a good one. Look at Odysseus. Imagine if the old liar had come home stony broke, a decade late, and told his wife: “Sorry, Penny, I got drunk, the ship was repossessed and the crew deserted, I gambled away all my money and I’ve spent the last ten years working in bars to pay my passage home.” The tale would not have endured. Penelope would probably have kicked him out and married one of the suitors.

It’s more or less the same with the unmysterious sabotage of Russia’s Nord Stream pipeline in September 2022. There’s a perfectly good, prosaic, obvious explanation. The giant undersea tube was able to supply cheap Russian gas to Germany, something the US government has disliked for decades. As long as it was there, Germany might get tired of the New Cold War and nurse its bruised economy instead. The US, using its superb, unique and expensive war technology, blew the pipeline up to prevent this.

A world hungry for adventure wants to believe that the job was done by a sexy young woman

A world hungry for adventure wants to believe that the job was done by a sexy young woman

Boringly, President Joe Biden specifically promised to do this, in February 2022. He proclaimed, at a White House press conference, “If Russia invades – that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine again – then there will be no longer a Nord Stream Two. We will bring an end to it.” One amazed reporter asked how President Biden would do this. With a tiny glint in his eye, Sleepy........

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