Former congressman Ron Paul wants the US and Russia to bury the hatchet before their military posturing gets out of hand, he told RT, praising President Vladimir Putin’s “reasonable” response to the US pullout from the INF treaty.

“There’s no reason in the world why two countries like Russia and the United States can’t get along together,” Paul said, pointing to the two nations’ cooperation in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union. “Why haven’t we taken real advantage of the elimination of the Cold War in 1989-1990?”

Paul was unhappy with both countries’ warlike posturing – “I’d like both of them to just quiet down,” he said – but blamed the Trump administration’s decision to pull out of the INF treaty for “accelerating the conflict,” suggesting Putin has “more legitimacy” because he is merely responding to US and NATO aggression, while Trump may be using the treaty’s dissolution as an excuse to build more weapons.

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“I just wish we could work on people getting along together, because if you threaten somebody, or it looks like you are, a country is then obligated to protect themselves,” Paul said. “It might be just rhetoric – strong rhetoric – to show that both sides are tough, but eventually, accidents can happen, and then there are ramifications.”

The goal is to have peace by trading and dealing with people, not by force of arms and killing people, intimidating and putting on sanctions.

Paul urged Washington to think twice before committing more resources to the arms race.

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“I think we’re a lot safer than the people in Washington and the people who build our weapons claim we are, because even if it’s not for the fact of aggression and starting a war, I think people, when they make profits building weapons, they’re likely to promote problems,” he said.

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