By Edward Lozansky

March 05, 2019 "Information Clearing House" - If anyone needed proof that former Sen. Sam Nunn, Georgia Democrat, and former Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz were right when they recently wrote in Politico that the U.S. and Russia are sleepwalking toward nuclear disaster, it came last week during Vladimir Putin’s annual address to the Russian parliament.

Mr. Putin warned Washington against deploying new missiles in Europe after the collapse of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, saying Moscow would install its own weapons targeting not only European missile installations but “decision-making centers” in the United States as well. He said that Russia’s reaction to any deployment would be resolute and that U.S. policymakers should calculate the risks before taking any such steps.

Washington and NATO condemned these "threats" as “unacceptable” and in turn called on Russia to focus on “returning to compliance” with the INF treaty.

However, Ted Postol of MIT presented a more balanced opinion in The New York Times, saying that the Russians have some valid reasons to accuse U.S. of non-compliance as well. This began 10 years back, when the Obama administration started deploying the “Aegis ashore” defense system in Europe, supposedly to shoot down Iranian missiles. Mr. Postol argued that those systems actually would be useless as defense against ballistic missiles but are capable of firing offensive U.S. cruise missiles. Because these Aegis systems are located in Eastern Europe and close to Russia, those offensive capabilities are rightly worrying Moscow.

Without going into technical details, one obvious point made by Messrs. Nunn and Moniz is that when we have the crisis of this magnitude “re-engagement with Russia is too important to wait for the Mueller probe to end. That means it’s time for Congress to take the lead.”

That is easier said than done since in this highly divided and partisan Congress one can hardly find more than two or three members who would listen to these smart gentlemen. Republicans and Democrats disagree on practically every issue except when they vote to condemn Russia and introduce yet more punitive measures, including a “sanctions bill from hell,” whatever that means.