Given the immense untapped shale resources in Europe and the US, it seems extraordinarily unlikely that these powers would risk fucking nuclear war over a bit o

Given the immense untapped shale resources in Europe and the US, it seems extraordinarily unlikely that these powers would risk fucking nuclear war over a bit of gas. If it's about Chevron's 10 billion, the Pentagon has suffered sneezes significantly more expensive than 10 billion. If the US administration should be so inclined, it would be so much simpler and cheaper just to reimburse Chevron for their loss. However much we want to pretend that stuff ended in 1989, we need to wake up to the fact that it didn't. Russia has invaded a sovereign country as it tried to exercise it's sovereignty to align with the western values. However much we're busy hating ourselves (legitimately) over Iraq, Guantanamo and NSA, our values are infinitely better than Putin's. EDIT: Oh, and as the linked articles explain, Europe is deeply dependent on Russian gas and the business and political interest is squarely towards appeasement. See former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder for reference. If there should be a rational gas/Russia conspiracy, it would be leveraging the conflict to squash opposition to fracking. If that's actually going on, it's the weakest conspiracy yet this century.