Thing is, it wasn't hindsight. The US had been warning Europe about the dangers of dependency on Russian energy since at least 2016 through 2-3 administrations (see my other comment for the citations).
replyYes and europe was warning the US not to engage with Iraq and now Iran in the way the US did.
replyAlso we read the warning as "don't buy from them, rather buy from us".
And it was extensivly debated in general.
That would be a lot more compelling if we didn’t already know how that story ended. I also think framing this as US-EU competition rather than the EU running its economic engine on cheap Russian fuel is misleading.
replyThe EU kept at it with plans to expand until the war started for the second time and “someone” took it upon themselves to violently sever that link.
Neither the US, nor EU nor russia is a monolithic block. So I try to avoid black and white framing in general. But especially the US warningbefore 2014, when at the same time with surplus fracking gas, not many considered serious. Besides, while everyone was buying from the Saudis and co. So why not russia?
replyNow at latest by 2014 that should have changed indeed. But even then different approaches would have been possible then cutting all ties and hope this will work out better.