Sidebar: Sunday School 3/13/22

Several Sunday School classrooms featured comments related to policies or decisions made by the Biden administration. With that in mind, I'm sharing highlights from three administration officials - National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Defense Department press secretary Adm. John Kirby (Ret.), and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman - who made the rounds yesterday.

I'll start with Sullivan's chat with Dana Bash on CNN's State of the Union; he also spoke with what's-his-name on Meet the Press and with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation.

• Russia's attack on the NATO training base "does not come as a surprise;" it shows Putin's frustration on not taking control of Ukraine's major cities, so he's expanding his attacks. The US will "defend every inch of NATO territory."
• Our goal is to support Ukraine and their negotiations with Russia and our allies, but "ultimately, it is Ukraine that will have to make its own sovereign decisions about the shape of any diplomacy going forward."
• We're working on "other capabilities" that could help, instead of planes, and we're confident "we will continue to be able" to get military assistance through the supply lines that have been established.
• Any use of chemical or biological weapons by the Russians will result in a "severe price" (no detailed provided). With our NATO allies, we've made that clear to Russia. And, we're monitoring our nuclear posture, "day by day, hour by hour."
• He's not going to publicly get into what we may or may not do vis-à-vis China if they decide to support Russia more actively or help them evade sanctions.

And from Adm. Kirby's chat with Martha Raddatz on This Week.

• No Americans were at the NATO training base when it was attacked. It's unlikely that a no-fly zone would have prevented it, and while "no-fly zone has a nice air policing sound to it," there's "very little that you can see that would make sense for this war to be escalated between two nuclear powers." 
• Our commitment to NATO's Article 5 is steadfast, but we shouldn't need to fight Putin. We've made it clear to him that all of NATO will defend our territory, and we have an open line with the Russian Ministry of Defense. We've repositioned some resources from Germany to Poland to help with defense.
• We've seen nothing indicating "some sort of imminent chemical or biological attack right now, but we're watching this very, very closely." And no, he's not going into detail here.
• We're looking at Ukraine "with awe and inspiration and pride." They fight "bravely, skillfully and, quite frankly, very creatively. They're using tactics that I don't think anybody predicted they would be able to use or would want to use, but they're doing that and they're defending their cities and population centers and their citizens as best they can." 

Finally, Sherman's conversation about Iran and China with Brett Baier on Fox News Sunday.

• The US consulate in Iraq is secure and everyone's been accounted for after the missile attack launched from within Iran; we don't believe the consulate "was actually the target" of the attack.
• She thinks the new nuclear deal "is close" and we're looking for everyone, including Russia, to bring it to a close; "... imagine these Iranians with a nuclear weapon." Ensuring they don't have one means we have to talk with them, and the Russians. We don't know yet if this deal is "as good as" the 2015 deal.
• She wasn't forthcoming on why the Biden administration hasn't acted on "indictable evidence" against two Iranians who are allegedly behind a plot to assassinate former National Security Advisor John Bolton. 
• It's an "open question" on whether the China/Russia relationship has suffered or strengthened lately. China had been seen as "pretty uncomfortable with an invasion of a sovereign country," and we hope that's still the case.
• Biden, with Congress, will move to remove Russia from "most favored nation status" at the World Trade Organization, which will cause China to have to "make some tough decisions."
• We don't believe China "ought to take Taiwan by force, and will do everything we can to deter that effort."

Hopefully this provides some perspective to the other classroom conversations.