It wasn’t an ally of Germany. There is always a chance that you get caught / leave evidence, and after attacking the critical infrastructure of an ally no one will have a reason to trust you.
The US has a habit of attacking critical German infrastructure. Until Snowden, nobody in the German government believed but afterward, we had to accept it.
In this case, the information could be restricted to fewer people knowing that the US attacked the infrastructure so it’s less likely that anybody finds out.
Biden was also willing to publically threaten to prevent North Stream 2 from being created. When it comes to taking actions to keep trust, threatening to do something against North Stream 2 destroys trust.
Computer hacking has always been in a separate category from “exploding things”, geopolitically. You may disagree with that distinction, but it’s relevant in the calculus.
The US has a habit of attacking critical German infrastructure. Until Snowden, nobody in the German government believed but afterward, we had to accept it.
In this case, the information could be restricted to fewer people knowing that the US attacked the infrastructure so it’s less likely that anybody finds out.
Biden was also willing to publically threaten to prevent North Stream 2 from being created. When it comes to taking actions to keep trust, threatening to do something against North Stream 2 destroys trust.
Computer hacking has always been in a separate category from “exploding things”, geopolitically. You may disagree with that distinction, but it’s relevant in the calculus.
Update: I was probably wrong and you were probably right.
What made you update?