On Thursday the lawmakers sent a letter to the US president expressing their joint concern over Russia's and the US’ launch-under-attack postures and "the risk of catastrophic miscalculation and full-scale nuclear war."
"As you know, were the United States to exercise its contingency plans to use nuclear weapons first in a conflict against a nuclear-armed adversary, a full-scale nuclear exchange could ensue, killing thousands of civilians," the letter reads.
"For the security and safety of the world, military options that can spiral towards mutually assured destruction should not be on the table."
Commenting on the issue, Russian political analyst, expert on US-Russia relations and Professor of the Academy of Military Sciences, Sergei Sudakov told Radio Sputnik that it was the US who has "played itself into a corner."
"The US has played itself into a corner and it's then become seriously frightened," he said.
The political scientist recalled that back in 2014 the US Strategic Command conducted combat operations based on the Bear Spear model of a nuclear strike on Russia. The model was considered a failure as during the imaginary attack Russia's reciprocal response almost completely eliminated the US population, while about 16 million Russians would have survived the attack in Western Siberia.
"Any conflict with a nuclear power ends up with the death of people," Sudakov said.
"However the Americans did not like this model and they understood that it is the wrong time to make such provocations," the political scientist said.
"The Pentagon has almost completely separated from the US State Department and is pursuing its own policy," the political analyst said.
He cited as an example the repeated urge by the Pentagon to make a show of force and deliver a tactical nuclear strike on Syria to eliminate Daesh once and forever.
"They have probably gone mad! When I first heard such comments I thought someone is losing the plot. They are ready to kill hundreds of thousands of civilians for the sake of their own mission. It is complete madness!" Sudakov told Sputnik.
That is why, he said, it is very logical that the US House lawmakers have made an appeal to the president.
"These people say: come to your senses, don't do it, don't even voice it as even the voiced word could lead to a conflict; while we want to live on and we don't want to live in the situation you are forcing us into," he said.
"The guys in the Pentagon need to understand that it is the time of peace and the conflicts should be regulated by peaceful means without threatening with nuclear strikes. We will survive information, hybrid, cold warfare however we don't need any nuclear war or any third world war," he stated.
