Amen. All right keep your place there in Matthew chapter 2 of course the very famous story about the wise men coming to visit Jesus. I told you we're going to continue our American heresy series this morning and we're going to have a Christmas twist. So this morning I want to talk about Christmas traditions, Christmas traditions. So we see that the story of the three wise men here keep your place in chapter 2 of Matthew and turn to Romans 14. The first thing I want to do is we just studied Romans 14 so it's very convenient it's fresh in your mind if you're here on Thursday night. The first thing I want to point out about Christmas traditions this morning is that there is nothing wrong with celebrating Christmas. You will find people who are very dogmatic about December 25th being not something we should celebrate and things like that. Of course there was no proof that Jesus was actually born on December 25th. We acknowledge that. But as far as those that say it's a pagan holiday you know the Romans they celebrated the winter solstice which is December 21st and December 22nd every year and there was kind of a long festival that always followed that. If you turn to Romans 14 let's just dispel this item right away. This isn't the point of the sermon but I want to get this off the table. Look at Romans 14 in verse number five. The Bible says one man esteemeth one day above another. Another's esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord. Just underline those verses or those words in your Bible. And he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord for he giveth God thanks. And he that eateth not to the Lord he eateth not and giveth God thanks. Of course in Romans 14 we are talking about brothers and sisters in Christ. People that are saved and it's just talking about if somebody regards the day over another day just if they regard it to the Lord it's no big deal. So if the day is celebrated unto the Lord there's no problem with that. So if you regard December 25th as Christmas as most Americans do there is no issue with that at all according to the Bible. It's a time for you and your family to celebrate the birth of the Savior of the world. You're regarding that unto the Lord. It's fine as long as you're regarding it unto unto the Lord. Now so that's as far as the Christmas you know everything you know you'll meet these people that everything's a pagan holiday and a Christmas tree is of the devil and things like that. That's not what the Bible says. Let every man be persuaded in his own mind. We talked about idols that's a different story but there's nothing wrong with celebrating Christmas on December 25th. Okay it's regarded unto the Lord. It doesn't mean you're dogmatic and you believe Jesus was born December 25th. You're just celebrating the birth of Christ on that day. Okay all right let's look at Christmas presents. Look at Matthew chapter 2. In Matthew chapter 2 we see the story of you know what we would consider the story of the three wise men. A couple interesting facts about the actual Bible and what it says about the wise men is that there really is no wording saying that there were three first of all. It's just kind of assumed by people according to the gifts that they gave. People assume you know three and it just kind of became this thing in popular culture. Well you know since it was gold and frankincense and myrrh there must have been three because you know but we don't know that all right. Not that that's important but it's also assumed that you know they visited if you seen this nativity scenes and things like that that they were at the birth of Christ that is also not the case. Look down at Matthew 2 and verse number 11. Matthew 2 and verse number 11 and the Bible reads and when they were come into the house they saw the young child with Mary his mother and fell down and worshiped him when they had opened their treasures they presented him unto unto him gifts gold frankincense and myrrh and then you see later in the chapter that Herod slew all the children from to and under so we basically know for sure that the wise men visited Jesus somewhere between the age of zero and two years old probably zero and you know he's probably about one I would think because they had some travel time in there but they were not at the birth of Christ okay. Now the part of the giving of Christmas gifts the tradition of giving Christmas gifts in the Bible is the fact that the wise men brought gifts to Christ okay. Gold was you know signifying the kingship of Christ the frankincense is an incense it was to you know it's signifying the deity of Christ and then of course the myrrh is an embalming oil signifying the death of Christ so those also have have some meaning. So this along with the fact that God gave his only begotten son is where we get this idea of giving gifts for Christmas okay. That's personally that way has always been my main understanding of what a Christmas gift is is about is that God is the gift giver he gave us his son he gave Jesus Christ for the sins of the world so that's what it is always meant to me. Now what I want to talk about today is what Christmas has become today in America okay. What does Christmas mean today in America how did it happen you know what's the historical context it's going to follow the same pattern that we've been going through with the American heresy series we're gonna just look at that what happened what's the historical context of it won't spend a lot of time on that but look I personally don't like where the giving of Christmas gifts has gone today in this country it's you know the commercialization of Christmas I don't like it all right but that's not where the sermon is going today all right this morning I want to focus on the gift giver and who is the gift giver so this morning I'm gonna talk about Santa Claus all right so kids you know first let's get this out of the way Santa's not real okay notice I didn't say spoiler alert because no kid in here should think that Santa is real all right it's a huge thing and my kids were always those kids that my kids were always the ones telling the other people's kids at four years old that Santa's not real and everyone was always mad at us and everything so yeah I'm that guy all right and my kids are those kids now Santa Claus where did he come from what's the historical context of it we're not going to spend a lot of time on this because as you can see there isn't a lot of historical context to actually where the Santa Claus that we know in America today came from but it all began with this guy called Saint Nicholas who lived from 270 AD to about 343 AD we don't know a lot about him we know that he was wealthy we know that he gave gifts to children and that he was kind of a he was a full answer philanthropist of his time we know that all we really know about him is that he probably attended the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD which was the first Council of the Roman Catholic Church okay so I'm not going to rip on Saint Nicholas this morning I don't know a lot about him I'm not going to throw the guy under the bus but he was probably involved in the Roman Catholic Church is what we know the Council of Nicaea is when the Roman Catholic Church was ordered to come together all everybody came together to come up with the doctrines of the church because that's how we should find doctrines of the church right we should all get together in a council under orders of a king and decide what the Christian faith should be right isn't that how we do it no we we follow what the Bible says and that's what we do right so back to Santa Claus basically the Council of Nicaea was the first ecumenical conference if you want to think about it that way and it killed to those people to the Roman Catholic religion it killed the idea of the independent church so the idea of this independent church which is by the way what the Bible talks about everywhere you're not going to find a universal church in the Bible what you're going to find is independent churches that's what you find in the Bible why is it a big deal because the that's what the Bible says and it's we are not to be underneath the king we are to be underneath Christ and the Word of God is our boss when you when the Bible is your boss you're a Baptist that's it it's very simple okay now so you can see where you know the devil loves denominations by the way because if I have this corporate structure of a church all I've got to do is get the top guy that's it if I have independent churches I have to knock off every single one of those churches because look do we not know independent churches that have gone into damnable heresy have you not heard of that happening but does it affect what we do here no because we're an independent church because that's the model that God put forth and that way there will always be no matter how many councils of Nicaea no matter how many Roman Catholic churches or how many governments start their own different churches throughout history we know that as an independent church there will always be a surviving true church that follows the Bible okay it's a great model all right okay back to Santa Claus you know he has many nicknames Chris Kringle you know Christ kind December 6th around the world became known as St. Nicholas day up until the time of the Reformation and then you know basically St. Nicholas fell out of favor in Northern Europe so they invented all kinds of different things called you know rough Nicholas and ashy Nicholas and furry Nicholas these these figures were all kind of the same thing they expected good behavior or forced children to suffer consequences like I mean some of these guys like they told the kids like if you don't be good you're gonna get kidnapped or whipped or whatever you know it was pretty you know rough Nicholas was tougher than Santa is today right now coming to America America changed everything for Santa Claus all right in 1821 an anonymous illustrated poem entitled the children's friend went much further in shaping the modern Santa and associating him with Christmas it took the magical gift bringing of St. Nicholas and stripped him of any religious characteristics and then addressed him in the furs of the shaggy dramatic Santa Claus versions and then finally in 1822 a man named Clement Clark Moore wrote a poem called a visit from St. Nicholas better known today as the night before Christmas this is where you get the reindeer and the flying sleigh and all these types of things so what I'm trying to get you to understand is that Santa Claus as we know him today was basically invented by American pop culture okay it basically the night before Christmas went it went viral if you want to think about it that way and it invented what we what we know is as Santa Claus so it was a it's kind of the Santa Claus that we all know and we see and the myth of Santa Claus is an American invention largely okay so you say what's the big deal you know are you really preaching a sermon on Santa Claus what's the big deal well what I want to talk about is beliefs with Santa Claus and how they are actually very directed at children to mess them up in their life okay so that's what we're going to talk about this morning so beliefs about Santa in light of the Bible is what we're going to talk about alright the first thing I want to bring up is that Santa Claus has God-like powers turn to Exodus chapter 20 at Exodus chapter 20 Santa has God-like powers if you look at Exodus chapter 20 in verse number three you will see the first commandment the first commandment that God gave Moses on the tablets Exodus chapter 20 in verse number three says thou shalt have no other gods before me the first thing about Santa Claus is that he's immortal turn to Psalm chapter 90 center of your Bible if you open it up right in the middle you'll find song you'll find the book of Psalms and go to chapter number 90 Santa is also immortal in Psalm chapter 90 in verse number two the Bible says before the mountains were brought forth wherever thou had formed the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God there is only one being who is immortal according to the Bible and it is God we could read verse after verse after verse about how God is immortal but God is from everlasting to everlasting it's an infinity symbol with arrows pointing in both directions he was never created he's always been like I said a couple weeks ago somebody ever asked you the question oh well who created God huh the answer is nobody because he is from everlasting to everlasting God is the only one that's immortal number two Santa is all-knowing keep in mind that this is what we're teaching children okay you're sitting here and you're like I know that Santa because you figured this out when you were you know seven or ten or twenty Santa's not real brother we had to have this talk just kidding but this is attacking children's base beliefs that they need to understand about someone else who is actually real in their life okay Santa is all-knowing in Santa Claus is coming to town the song it says he sees you when you're sleeping and he knows when you're awake he knows if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake it's teaching children in and I'm sure you all can just hear the tune of that song already right because it's an earworm that's been hooked in you since you were a little kid and you will never forget it because music is that powerful there's no way that I could ever force you to forget that song you will always remember it but they're teaching kids that God that that Santa knows everything that belongs to God turned out Psalm 147 it's another characteristic that belongs to God and all these items we could go into verse after verse after verse after verse in the Bible about but I just want to give you a couple examples in Psalms 147 and verse number five the Bible reads great is our Lord and of great power his understanding is infinite God is omniscient he knows everything he's omnipotent as well it says of great power he has all power he has all the power to do anything and he's omniscient which means he knows everything the hairs of your head he knows how many there are the Bible says okay once again they're giving God's greatness the characteristics of God's greatness to some mythical creature all right or person number three he's magical he is the magical gift giver and it robs that from God he has magical powers he can fly he's outside of time all these different things in John 3 16 the Bible says for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting life God is the one that did the giving so they're stealing that from God okay they're stealing that credit from God it gets worse Santa Claus and the belief of Santa Claus is based on works and that's what we're teaching children at a young age that it's based on works and it gets even worse than that because what they are doing with the with the myth of Santa Claus is they're actually redefining what a simple word means and they're redefining the word gift with Santa Claus look we use this analogy when we go out and we talk to people it's the easiest analogy because the Bible uses this analogy of a gift we tell somebody if I give you a gift and then I say hey I'm gonna give you this gift and you have to go wash my car is it really a gift and what does everyone say no because you're working for it everyone understands that but the gift from Santa Claus is earned you see if you're good you get a gift if not you get coal or whatever look it's of works it's teaching works based salvation at a young age to these children and here's another thing that's really dangerous about it it sets the bar low enough where everyone is able to get over it because have you ever really heard of anyone getting coal like for real in this day and age in America it never happens so you don't really have to be that good you know whatever that your bar is as a child you're always able to step over it because you're gonna get a Christmas gift anyway so it's teaching works but look it just drives everybody thinks that they're a good person Hitler thought he was a good person everyone thinks they're a good person I mean it fosters this works-based attitude that leads to this idea that everyone will get to heaven that everyone's just you know if you believe in works then that the next question is do I have enough works to get to heaven and with these types of things from a young age you're teaching the children that yeah you have enough you're good I got the Christmas gift anyway I must have been good enough okay even worse turn to Matthew chapter 7 it redefines the meaning of belief of believe these are simple words the gospel is simple but it's attacking the base simplicity of the gospel look you must believe right you have to not only do good works and be a good kid but you have to believe that Santa exists otherwise isn't that what's taught believe when you see believe on the big posters or whatever and then you see the Santa movie or whatever is coming out it's about believing that Santa exists I mean how many kids movies are out there that you know it's about the they have to believe in Santa you have to be good and believe but is that really what the Bible teaches that the word believe means look at Matthew chapter 7 and look down at verse number 21 look is believing that Jesus exists all that is required to go to heaven but you see look at Matthew 7 in verse number 21 this is Jesus talking if you have a red-letter Bible these words will be read not everyone the seath unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven these people call Jesus Lord they obviously believe that he exists but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name in thy name cast out devils in thy name done many wonderful works and then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity don't these people believe that Jesus exists then why are they going to hell because it is not about believing that Jesus exists it is about that's why you see those two words together dozens and dozens of times in the Bible about believing on Jesus it is about believing on Jesus Jesus said here these people knew he existed they called him Lord they're going to hell because they were trusting in their works that's why these people were going to hell so believing that Jesus exists and thinking you have good works that's the Santa Claus model right there that's what we're teaching these kids that is not salvation salvation is believing on Jesus for my salvation and I have nothing to do with it myself it's not it's not 90% Jesus 10% me it's all or nothing folks and it takes a humble person to be able to put everything and believe on Jesus Christ for your salvation that is the danger of Santa Claus for kids those people in Matthew 21 those in Matthew 721 those people are going to hell and notice that Jesus said I never knew them because once you have believed on Jesus he didn't say I used to know you or I knew you a few years ago and then I forgot who you were because once Jesus knows you that's it he knows you here's the third thing the scariest thing about Santa Claus when I think about this whole thing is that the truth is discovered because you the kids do discover the truth at some point either their parents decide that hey the hoax is up or whatever or the kids hear from their other friends or whatever you know the truth is discovered at a critical time in the child's life because when you're seven eight years old guess what you can start to understand you can start to understand the gospel when you're in a if you're in a Bible preaching church and you have little kids right now and you go out soul-winning and you sit under Bible preaching here's what's going to happen when your kids get to be five six seven years old they're going to start asking you questions they're going to start saying hey I do bad things it am I going to go to heaven they're going to start getting convicted of their own sins and they're going to start wanting to know what the truth is of the gospel and they're going to know if they've heard you give the gospel to people over and over again and that's when those children that's why you hear so many people that grew up in Baptist homes they got saved when they were six seven eight nine years old right around the time that children are finding out that their parents have been lying to them for six seven eight years turn your Bible is a second Timothy chapter four I mean should you lie to your kids first of all just like that base question should you lie to your kids look at second Timothy second Timothy chapter four and look at verse number one and the Bible reads I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom preach the word be instant in season out of season reproof rebuke absorb with all-long suffering and doctrine for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but after their own loss shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned on to what fables in first Timothy chapter one I'll just read it for you you turn to second Peter chapter one in first Timothy chapter one in verse number four the Bible says neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith you're going to confuse them you're going to confuse your children you know it's almost like God knew this would happen when he writes things like this in the Bible turn to second Peter chapter one are you there look at verse 16 the Bible reads for we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we may known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eyewitnesses of his majesty look it's a cunningly the Santa Claus thing is a cunningly devised fable and it's it's derailing kids and here's another thing it steals credit from God and if you understand look Herod Herod in the Bible is not the same Herod that God killed a little bit later in the book of Acts it's his son because Herod died and then Jesus came back from Egypt but look Herod in the Bible in Acts chapter 12 Herod had just killed James he just murdered one of the Apostles with the sword the Bible says and then he goes and he gives this great glorifying speech and everybody after the speech says this let me just turn there and read it for you everybody after the speech starts saying it was such a great speech everyone's like he's he's like God they said I mean imagine if I was such a good speaker I mean he must have been a great speech people were like he's like God and then the Bible says that he gave he gave not the glory to God think about it he had just killed James a little while earlier in the book of Acts he had just killed one of the greatest Apostles and God didn't kill him for that and then he goes and he gives a speech where people are calling him God and he gives God not the glory and God kills him right there he strikes him dead if you notice one thing in the Bible from the Old Testament to the New Testament when people steal credit from God he comes down hard on them think about Jesus with the Pharisees you know the whole blasphemy of the Holy Ghost what did the Pharisees do Jesus had just cast a demon out of a man using the power of the Holy Ghost to do so the third person in the Trinity and the Pharisees gave that credit to Satan basically and Jesus immediately damns them to hell for it right there God takes stealing his credit extremely seriously so you think that this Santa things joke no it's very serious according to the Bible look it teaches your kids not to trust you especially in things of a spiritual nature I mean one person found out one person found out that we didn't do Santa Claus with our kids many years ago and they're like what and they came up to my kids and they're like Jesus and Santa Claus are friends when the world is wrong with you because I wasn't even saved at the time and I'm like what is the matter with you I mean look it's serious it teaches them that their well-being is based on works it's teaching them works based salvation at a young age and then you're going to come to them and you're going to tell them something completely different right after you've lied to them in the same area come on Proverbs chapter 12 go ahead and turn there book of Psalms right after book of Psalms is the book of Proverbs yeah let's go there look at Proverbs chapter 12 and verse number 22 I think we would do well if we paid attention to verses in the Bible where God uses the word abomination I think we would do well but sometimes we hear verses so much that I think that this word is lost on us look at Proverbs 12 verse number 22 the Bible says lying lips are abomination to the Lord but they that deal truly are as delight look there are a lot of things that American culture teaches are no big deal that God calls an abomination I mean the whole Homo sodomy thing abomination dress standards men dressing like women and women dressing like men it's funny to Americans but God calls it an abomination that means you know what that means that mean God that means God literally hates it I mean we have to pay attention to what the Bible says lying lips are one of the things that God hates so should you lie to your kids about anything no so look people will hear a sermon like this and they'll say you know what you're no fun you take the joy out of Christmas for your kids and you know what's wrong with you they'll say turn to Romans chapter 15 let's find out what's wrong with me where does joy come from where does joy come from let's see if the Bible has the answers to that question look at Romans 15 in verse number 13 the Bible says this now the hope of God now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost let me read for you Romans 14 verse number 17 for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost so when you got saved the Bible says that you were sealed with this Holy Spirit of promise you notice how these two verses I just read you it said peace in believing in believing on what believing on the Lord Jesus Christ believing the gospel and that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost joy and peace comes through that Holy Ghost that you were sealed by that's where your joy comes from when you got saved look the Holy Spirit will give you joy that's true joy turn to Psalm 51 I want to read for you first Peter chapter 1 in verse number 8 look it's a gift and that that gift that Holy Spirit that gives you that joy is a gift that no one can take from you first Peter chapter 1 in verse number 8 says this whom having not seen you love in whom though now you see him not yet believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory the Bible says that if you're saved in your sealed with the Holy Ghost you have joy unspeakable I mean is that better than some stupid fake story and in a remote control car I mean what in the world look at Psalm 51 joy is tied to salvation in that ceiling of the Holy Spirit look the Holy Spirit is what sealed you is what sealed you news what is that source of joy in you by the way once once again that's eternal security in the Bible you rejoice with joy unspeakable if I thought that you know I could go and lose this gift I've been given I would just be nervous and freaking out all the time about it but I'm sealed and that's how I can have this joy that's why when you're out soul-winning you can really tell if somebody gets it if they're just like very joyful because they just been given the best gift that anyone could ever give them and they're sealed by the Holy Ghost Psalm 51 Psalm 51 is right after David had committed adultery he murdered your eye the Hittite I mean he he committed adultery with the man's wife then he killed the man along with several other people he killed by the way I mean your eye of the Hittite was one of the mighty men he's not the easiest guy in the world to kill so he went into this battle and a lot of men died with Uriah that day David had committed a horrible sin God came down on him hard God you know took his son from him but look what David says in Psalm 51 in verse number 12 look what he says he says restore unto me the joy of thy salvation did he say restore my salvation to me he said restore unto me the joy and uphold me with thy free spirit he says give me give me that give me that joy back Lord and God did and then he says then I will teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee he's like I'll go tell people I'll go preach your word to people I will get people saved to what he says look these people that are into this Santa Claus stuff they're they're causing their child their children to stumble remember Romans 14 a few days ago it says hey don't get down on people for things that don't matter don't be beating down on people for what days they celebrate or what they eat because you know we're free in Christ now but don't cause people to stumble that have those convictions in their life imagine causing someone who's unsaved to stumble what's that going to do for their odds of ever getting saved imagine if that unsaved person that you were causing to stumble was a child I mean you are messing these kids up by teaching them these things but Santa Claus messes with core beliefs that are directly tied to salvation do you think that that's an accident do you think that that's an accident I mean these beliefs this idea that it's not of works that you must believe on Jesus Christ completely for your salvation that is it's being attacked by this stuff okay now just conclusion tonight or this morning and a little bit of application what should we be teaching our kids is the question what should you be teaching your kids at a young age and the Santa Claus thing is a perfect example of you can use this as a lesson for your kids when they're very young because all the other kids are going to be believing something like Santa Claus you can use this the thing that you should be teaching your kids at a young age is that you should teach them to always seek the truth turn to John 14 it's our verse of the week just look at the front of your bulletin John 14 6 the Bible says Jesus sayeth unto him I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the father but by me look if here's what I know about you this morning especially if you're saved here's what I know I know at some point in your life you wanted to know what was true and especially you know those of us who got saved later in life you know when we were adults at some point in your life you had to set aside your pride and what you grew up with and what you thought was true and just just say you know what I just want to know what's true that's the common thing you in this church you go up and visit Verity Sacramento that's the one comp we all believe different things about things that don't matter right we might have little different political things here and there we might have different views on conspiracy theories whatever but at some point we all wanted to just know what was true that's the common thread look everything that this world is teaching is false think about it think about the public school system where you came from the origins of life in the universe it's all wrong everything's the tea nothing on TV is real I mean reality TV it's not real I'm sorry I mean nothing that you see in that the news I mean the news it's all from a godless bias perspective on one wing of the political bird same bird it's all it's all biased percent none of it's real nothing you read about what's happening overseas for what reason is real you don't know nothing politicians say is true they just want to get elected it's a game for them that's it we were it we were at Best Buy I was at Best Buy with the boys a couple days ago we had to get some AV equipment and we had to walk we had to walk into you know where all the TVs and projectors and all that stuff are I mean look I mean the what then they had the huge screens with 4k everything and all these sci-fi images I mean look I mean it's fantastic fantastic in the in the sense of far from reality is what it is and then you got the video games over here that are just like look we live in a society where everything is fake everything's fake you know people people are gonna wake up there's gonna be people that wake up 30 years from now this is what I told the boys we're walking out I'm like there's I mean because I mean it's it's drawing to people they live in this stuff and I told the boys I said there's gonna be people that wake up in 30 years realizing they wasted their whole life in a screen in a in a reality that's not real I mean how sad is that you know what that the actual truth is is that most of the people out there they won't wake up that that's just how they'll live their life they'll live this meaningless nothing life and most of them will not wake up that's but I mean it's it's it's a draw you can see why it's a draw don't participate in the fakeness teach your kids to seek the truth I walked out of work the other day and I work in that huge building downtown and there was a line there was a big ballroom in the bottom of the building and it was rented out by some Santa organization there's a Santa organization you want to talk about dead works I mean there's people there's people that spend their time volunteering and this is their this is their mark they're gonna leave on this world answering Santa letters for the post office I mean I mean this is what they're doing hey these this kid just wrote to me that his mom died and he needs this and this and this and I'm gonna write back to him and continue the lie talk about dead works and and just wickedness in general that there's a line to see Santa Claus there's a line out the building and two blocks down they should police shut the street down I mean it's crazy kids are screaming they don't want to sit on some weird fat old guys lap that they don't know I mean what's wrong with these parents walking in the mall couple weeks ago with Jacob we walked by the Santa thing we won't go sit on that that fat old guy's lap no my car right raising them right it's weird folks when you have the basis and you're grounded in the Bible these things are strange and they should be strange turn to John 18 we'll finish up here John 18 John chapter 18 we see this story of Jesus standing in front of Pontius Pilate there's a couple of things I just want to point out here it's an interesting story John 18 look at verse number 33 we'll start there then Pilate this is the Jews had brought Jesus to the governor of the Romans at the time it was Pontius Pilate and he tried to let him go but the Jews just insisted insisted insisted and Pontius Pilate was ultimately a politician he didn't want to get in trouble with the people so he he caved but look at John 18 of verse number 33 then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again and called Jesus and said unto him art thou the king of the Jews Jesus answering him said answered him said answered him say as thou this thing of thyself or did others tell it the of me Jesus said who told you this and Pilate answered am I a Jew he just had a disdain for the Jews you could tell by no nation and the chief priests have delivered the unto me what has thou done Jesus answered my kingdom is not of this world if my kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews but now is my kingdom not from hence Pilate therefore said unto him art thou a king then Jesus answered thou say us that I am a king to this end was I born to be a king he's saying I am the king and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth everyone that is of the truth here with my voice and Pilate said unto him what is truth and when he had said this he went out again unto the Jews and said unto them I will I find no faults I find in him no fault at all look Pilate was a thinker is what this tells me he knew that the truth of his time was according to every man he knew that just truth was according to what you thought it was and that wasn't the same truth that I think is look without God and without the Bible and without being grounded in the Word of God that's what it is it's it's whatever you think it is your truth is not my truth this is why the atheist is so dangerous and it just falls apart immediately because everyone would just want what is best for them but look there is an absolute truth and it is Christ and the irony of the whole situation is when Pilate said what is truth look at the front of your bulletin the truth was standing right in front of him because Jesus said I am the truth in John 14 6 so it's ironic that Pilate was asking a question like that when he was staring truth right in the face so on December 25th celebrate truth coming into the world is what we should do celebrate Jesus Christ you know the real gift of eternal life is through him let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer dear Heavenly Father we thank you for today we thank you for all these people Lord we thank you for the ultimate gift of salvation Lord we thank you for sending your son Jesus Christ that we may have that gift through him Lord help us to celebrate December 25th unto you Lord unto your day and help us not get wrapped up and all the other just garbage everybody else around us is getting wrapped up in Lord but us remember that this day is about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ our Savior we love you thank you for today Jesus name amen


U.S. warns China for lethal aid to Russia. U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has affirmed that China would pay real costs if it moved towards providing lethal aid that would help Russia in the Russia-Ukraine war. The statement by the U.S. White House Security Advisor was made during an interview with CNN's State of the Union program on Sunday at a critical juncture in the war in Ukraine. Notably, the Chinese envoy visited Russia to show its support. From our perspective actually, this war presents real complications for Beijing, and Beijing will have to make its own decisions about how it proceeds, whether it provides military assistance. But if it goes down that road, it will come at real costs to China. And I think China's leaders are weighing that as they make their decisions, said the U.S. National Security Advisor. Jake Sullivan warns China over its support to Russia. The U.S. has not just threatened China, but they have laid out both the stakes and the consequences of how things would turn out, said Sullivan in his diplomatic conversation with China. Further, he added, and we are doing that clearly and specifically behind closed doors. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia has asked for drones and ammunition from China shared a source familiar with the input. However, Chinese President Xi Jinping has been discussing whether to send lethal aid or not for the past several months. Meanwhile, the White House has intelligence input that China has been considering Russia to provide arms, ammunition, and drones that could help the Russian invasion of Ukraine, said three sources familiar with the intelligence told CNN. However, it appears that China has not made its final decision because the negotiations between Russia and China about the price and scope of the equipment are ongoing. CIA Director William Burns also shared his concerns about China's lethal aid to Russia. We are confident that the Chinese leadership is considering the provision of lethal equipment, said Burns. Further, he said that they also don't see that a final has been made yet, and they have not witnessed an actual shipment of lethal equipment.


Good morning everyone, if we could all take our seats.  There's a few seats at the front table, so for those of you standing in the back, there's still plenty of room. My name is Jennifer Cook, I'm Director of the Africa Program here at CSIS. First, I want to welcome you all to CSIS and to the CSIS Military Strategy Forum, which over the course of time has brought senior defense leaders to present their vision and insights on the direction of U.S. defense policy and military strategy. CSIS is really most grateful to Royal Royce North America for their support for this series, which has been really fascinating. I'm particularly pleased today to welcome General Carter Ham, Commander of the U.S. Africa Command. General Ham, I think you can say is still fairly new to the command, having been in its position less than six months, although I think with everything that's happened in those six months, you must feel quite a bit longer. The general came to the command March 9, 2011. Ten days later, Operation Odyssey Dawn was launched in Libya, the front end of an African-led coalition to enforce the U.N. Security Council resolution on Libya. The Libyan crisis, I think that initial front edge went very well, I think by all assessments, but the crisis obviously is not yet over. There are huge uncertainties now how that country will rebuild itself, how it will hold itself together, what has always been a very deeply fragmented society. A lot of uncertainty about the regional fallout of a vacuum in Libya into the Sahel and beyond, and perhaps to some extent political fallout from within Africa, surrounding kind of the role of AFRICOM and the NATO intervention. In that time, Sudan went from one state to two, with South Sudan formally declaring independence on July 9. Huge uncertainties there politically and economically, and most immediately in terms of security, ongoing violence, huge fragility, problems with the integration of militaries, building a professional military force, debomalization and so forth. In that time, we saw a major upsurge in attacks by Boko Haram in Nigeria, including the attack against U.N. headquarters in Abuja in August. We've seen the unfolding of an epic and tragic humanitarian crisis in the Horn, particularly the famine in Somalia that threatens close to a million people with famine, with al-Shabaab just today having launched again major attacks within Mogadishu. So that back and forth in Somalia continues. Piracy in Somalia, but now we're hearing increasing supports from West Africa, and then the ongoing issues that have been there for a long time, the DRC capacity building more broadly and so forth. And also, I think there's debates here in Washington, D.C., and probably struggles that you have to fight here in terms of budget cuts and what that may mean for the command going forward. Anyway, we have no doubt that you are up to all these challenges. General Ham brings 36 years of service, which has included assignments in Georgia, Italy, Germany to name a few, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Macedonia, and Iraq. He's had a tremendous breadth of experience in a series of very tough jobs in Macedonia, in Mosul during the very dark days of the Iraq War. He was previous assignment as commanding general of the U.S. Army, Europe. Most recently, leading the investigation into the Fort Hood shootings and the delicate issue of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, some very difficult and sensitive jobs. And I think people have remarked to me that you're quiet and you listen and very deliberate and very fair-minded in all of these circumstances, and we appreciate that. We are so delighted to have you here. We're going to keep it fairly informal. General Ham will talk for 10 minutes. Then we'll ask maybe a few questions and we'll open up for discussion with the audience. So thank you, and General Ham, thank you. Thank you very much, Jennifer. It is great to be here, and thanks very much for inviting me to have the chance to talk a bit about Africa and Africa Command. As Jennifer kind of laid out what I've been doing as a soldier over the past several years, you'll notice none of that addressed any service in Africa or any association with Africa. And I think that's kind of where we have been as a military and certainly growing up in the Army. Africa was not on our horizon. It wasn't an area that a continent that we thought much about. It wasn't certainly in the forefront of any of our activities, but that has dramatically changed. Certainly over the past several years, recognized in 2007-2008 when President Bush decided to form U.S.-Africa Command, kind of birthing it out of U.S.-European Command, as many as you recall, which formerly had responsibility for U.S. military engagement in Africa. As Jennifer mentioned, I have been here about six months, and it's not quite been the six months I expected. It started a little differently than I had anticipated, but it's a reminder that you don't get to control things all the time, and the world situation evolves in ways and in directions that sometimes are not anticipated. Six months into this job, I would say that I'm at the point now where I'm just beginning to understand what I don't know about Africa. The complexity, diversity, the severity of the security challenges that spread across the continent can be a little staggering, and it's easy sometimes to feel a little bit overwhelmed. And I would tell you that what keeps me from feeling overwhelmed is in my travels and encounters with African leaders, both military and civilian. And in almost every case, what I find as I interact with them is a very clear-eyed view of the security challenges that they face. They're not pollyannish about this. They know that there are some very serious problems that they have to address, and in most cases have a pretty good idea about how to do that. And they realize that in almost every case these are some long-term efforts required. These aren't problems that lend themselves to quick and easy solutions. If they did, they would have been solved already. And these are tough, in many cases, long-standing issues. So the challenge for us at U.S.-Africa Command is to find ways in which we can help Africans address these concerns. We're guided at the command by two overarching principles. The first is one that was espoused by President Obama and his trip to Ghana in 2009, where he made the clear statement that, somewhat obvious, but we seek African solutions to African problems. And I think for us at U.S.-Africa Command, the corollary to that is that in the long run, Africans are better able to address African security challenges. But as some military leaders in Africa have told me, they need a little bit of help in some cases. And so we looked to partner with Africans where we can, where our help and assistance is welcome to help them address their security problems. The second underlying principle in all that we do is just, again, a statement of the obvious, but that a safe, stable, secure Africa is in the best interest not only of the Africans, but of the United States of America. It is in our best interest that stability prevailed. And so we, again, find ways, look for ways in which we can contribute to that. Last month, a few weeks ago, at the U.N. General Assembly, talked about this year being a year of extraordinary transformation. I think you could make a pretty good argument. I think I could make a pretty good argument that nowhere has that extraordinary transformation been more evident than in the continent of Africa. From north to south, east to west, region to region, there are significant changes afoot that portend significant security implications for us and certainly for the Africans. So just to give you a sense of where we are and what we're trying to do, I'll hit a couple of regions briefly and then look forward to your questions and the discussion with you. For me, east Africa becomes the highest priority region. For a host of reasons, but unfortunately it is in east Africa where most of the negative security issues are present. There certainly are violent extremist organizations. There's a very close seam between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula and al-Qaida and the Arabian Peninsula and al-Qaida east Africa, al-Shabaab, a growing relationship there which is certainly of concern. There's piracy. There's a new nation of South Sudan, the security force of assistance that has required their horrific famine and loss of life in the Horn of Africa specifically in Somalia at present. We have legislated action here in the United States that requires us to assist in countering the Lord's Resistance Army. So the number of issues that are kind of concentrated in east Africa, to me, make that the area that requires our greatest attention at present. It's also an area where we have some very willing partners. And I would note specifically Uganda and Burundi and their contribution to the African Union mission in Somalia which is having a very positive effect in doing quite well there. They're looking for ways where they can follow their own doctrine and ours as well which is exploit success. So we'll look for ways that we might partner with them. Next for me is the Sahel and al-Qaida in the lands of the Islamic Maghreb, relatively small but unfortunately still strong and in many ways still a growing organization that creates a high degree of instability in the Sahel region and an espoused intent to attack Westerners and to include U.S. interests. So I think AQIM remains a very significant issue with us and particularly concerning at present is the proliferation of weapons that may be coming out of Libya and I suspect that's something we may want to talk about in the discussion phase. Moving a little bit south of that as Jennifer mentioned Boko Haram in Nigeria is also transforming. I think from perhaps an organization that looked primarily internally but is now increasing their violence and certainly has increased the rhetoric and their intent to target Western and including U.S. interests in the region. Their 26 August attack against the U.N. headquarters in Abuja I think is evident of that and so for those that had any question about Boko Haram's violent nature and their motive I think that was largely put to rest in that attack in August. So as they talk about the extremist organizations Al-Qaeda East Africa Al-Shabaab Al-Qaeda the lands of the Islamic Maghreb and Boko Haram each individually of concern but what really concerns me is at least a stated intent for those organizations to link and synchronize their efforts and that to me would be a very very dangerous outcome for us. More broadly we do focus with our African partners on maritime security had some very good successes in the Gulf of Guinea in the west where the economic community of West African states ECOS economic community of Central African states have collaborated at the regional level and the individual states to increase their maritime domain awareness intelligence sharing to collaborate more closely on maritime security working out legal agreements that would allow things such as hot pursuit of criminals or pirates in the Gulf of Guinea increasing the capacity of coast guards and navies in the country to counter illicit trafficking and piracy so a lot of success there as well. Our efforts in Africa are less visible the further south we go but we have some strong partnerships there as well. South Africa has recently expressed great interest in addressing piracy on their coast and I think this is a great area in which South Africa could and should take a leading role and I think they'll be quite effective in that area as well and if there are some ways we can help we'll look forward to that. At the end of all that you kind of say okay well what is it that you want to achieve well one of the things I've tried to do as I talk with the commanders we should never lose sight of who we are we are first and foremost a department of defense geographic combatant command and our primary responsibility is to protect America, Americans and American interests from threats that transit or might emanate from the continent of Africa. We think we do that most effectively by strengthening the defense capabilities of African states and regional organizations again back to the principle of Africans are better able to address African security challenges but that's what we do. They ask me what keeps me awake at night it is the thought of an American passport holding a person who transits to a training camp in Somalia and gets some skill and then finds their way back into the United States to attack Americans here at our homeland that's mission failure for us and so that's what we've got to remain ever vigilant for is that kind of threat that addresses our country. It's been a fascinating first six months for me I've enjoyed the multiple dimensions of the command and the complexity and diversity of the mission sets that we have on our plate I should mention as Jennifer talked about you know we are the reality is we're in a different fiscal situation than anticipated so we're not sure what that's going to mean for us just yet I think the way I choose to address this within the command is twofold I think first of all it will require us to have a much sharper prioritization I think we're going to have to be more clear about where are the highest priority efforts for us at the other end of that spectrum that probably means there are some things that the U.S. military has done in the past that we're likely to not be able to continue or we will do it smaller or less frequently than we have in the past we've got to do that in collaboration with our partners at State and AID and a number of other agencies as well secondly I think the fiscal realities will drive us to a more regional approach rather than a series of bilateral engagements I think that actually fits pretty well with the direction that the African Union and others would like to have in terms of building regional capacity so I think our efforts actually might be complementary in that regard so with that I'll just pause and see where you'd like to go in terms of questions or discussion Great, well thanks very much kind of again it just reminds us how many diverse challenges you face from so many angles maybe just to start in terms of I think many of the battles when AFRICOM was first established in terms of reactions from African countries some of that still happens but I think General Ward spent much of his time kind of putting out those those kind of fires I think trying to explain what the command was what it wasn't and in that it kind of gave this sense of in some ways the command emphasized much more the softer side of capacity building and longer term partnership and so forth which are all important to the harder side but I think that in some ways that almost got overemphasized and I think kind of the unapologetic statement of we're there for U.S. interests is important but I wonder if Libya, if Somalia some of the reports on drones if some of the kind of difficult political relationships we have to establish because we need security partners are you feeling blowback is there kind of being a resurgence from some of the African partners for those older debates on what Africa means and what kind of presence is desired or wanted in Africa or people saying look we need you I mean which Good thank you I should set the outset just say we wouldn't be anywhere near where we are without the efforts of General Ward he saw, unlike anybody else me included, he saw Libya coming and I don't think he knew exactly how it would unfold but he saw something coming and formed the Joint Task Force well ahead of time anybody else saw something coming so he had some great vision and it was his significant effort on building personal and professional relationships that has allowed the command to continue I was worried about that frankly as Jennifer mentioned 10 days into the command and we begin kinetic operations in a place where we hadn't talked much about kinetic operations before so I was concerned about how that might unfold in an early trip into the continent talking with military leaders I asked them just frankly that question is this activity or is our military operations in Libya is that going to affect the relationship that Africa Command has and seeks to continue with you or with your partners and one of a senior African leader as I had the military leader as I was having this discussion kind of leaned back in his chair and said general the Africans who hate you will still hate you and the Africans who don't hate you still won't hate you I thought that was a pretty mature approach that one specific thing isn't going to alter that the opinion of the command the military more than the civilian leaders were kind of the opinions as we always knew who you were you wouldn't put a military command if you didn't have some vision that at some point you might have to conduct military operations it has been a point of discussion to be sure as I travel around Africa there's no question but in some countries there is a very differing view about Libya there's not much disagreement about the end state clear agreement on the necessity to protect civilians pretty near agreement that Mr. Gaddafi Libya would be better off without Mr. Gaddafi and better with a government that the people were able to select lots of disagreement about how to get there and that's okay so we've had that discussion there's been no instance where none that I'm aware of that any country has backed away from or asked to reduce their military to military engagement exercises or anything like that with us as a result of Libya as again as I go around the country almost every place it's can you do more can we host an exercise here can you do that can you do this even in places where there's disagreement about the way in which the operations were conducted the relationships are still strong just one more question before I open it up one of the State Department's big priorities coming in and the Obama Administration was rebuilding some of the relationships with big important powers I'm thinking Nigeria, Angola, South Africa that had been somewhat kind of neglected and then become a little bit prickly in some ways perhaps Nigeria less so but South Africa, Angola I think there's a real keen desire by the State Department to try to broaden that engagement somewhat South Africa obviously we've had ups and downs I mean we consider them a good friend but it does get prickly at times and it seems like the maritime security aspect may be kind of one way to build out on a more on a broader security relationship with them I'm wondering what are the reactions obviously Boko Haram in Nigeria now are you Angola can you talk a little bit about those three countries and kind of the reception the three countries that have capacities that other African countries have in terms of peacekeeping in terms of conflict resolution and so forth yeah sure, there are three very important countries I haven't found a non-important country in Africa yet the little ones come up in that but in terms of capacity so starting with Nigeria it's very clear, Nigeria is the leading country for most activities in West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea a very significant role in ECOWAS they lead a number of other missions in a variety of places we have had a longstanding and very helpful, very useful naval and air military relationship less strong with the army and in my visit to Abuja I had a great meeting with the chief of the army staff following President Jonathan's visit here with President Obama and I think we're now starting to find ways in which we can cooperate more closely very clearly Boko Haram has altered that relationship somewhat and so we're looking for ways in which we can help ways that Nigeria would like us to be able to help in developing their counter-terrorist capabilities things such as non-lethal training and non-lethal equipment to be more precise in the application of force I think are ways in which we can proceed similarly as we engage military state and AID and many others in the international community are working with Nigeria to help address the underlying causes from which Boko Haram gathers some strength particularly the dissatisfied youth and others so there are programs underway there as well and it is helping Nigeria find the right balance and for us in the military how can we help what we know very clearly is that a single-track military effort won't satisfactorily address this and then Nigeria is very clearly understanding that so a strong and growing relationship with Nigeria and Gola on the other hand has been largely hands off for quite a while we are starting now to have the foundation of a good maritime relationship with Angola and I think the maritime domain will probably be the area of main emphasis for us it's where they have asked for some help our sixth lead commander has been there on a visit again to start to establish that relationship and I think that's one that bears promise we look to partner with the Portuguese small but long standing relationship and I should mention more broadly that many of the Europeans have a longer experience in Africa than we do and while not always positive we seek to partner with them as we move forward and in South Africa I absolutely agree with you South Africa are a very large, very powerful nation in every domain, diplomatically, economically and certainly in the security sector as well South Africa and Africa command have not had the strongest ties General Ward put a lot of personal energy into that and I think gained some significant ground in demystifying Africa command as this past summer we had the largest exercise in the post-apartheid era the military-to-military relationships are strong and growing what we hope to do again is find ways when South Africa would like some assistance they should, rightfully in my opinion continue in a leadership role in Africa and even more broadly internationally of leading African Union missions leading UN missions, certainly their role in the South Africa development community of addressing piracy on a regional basis I think are all positive indicators let's open it up for questions yes, the gentleman here and there's a mic and please identify yourself and we'll take a couple at a time alright Dave Folgem with Aviation Week the broad question here is what do you need in the way of ISR General Carlisle whose plans and ops for the Air Force said that they fully intend even with the current budget crisis to go on beyond 65 UAV orbits and so what share of that are you asking for and if you're not in that planning part what are you asking for because it seems like ISR would help you as much as anything you could possibly get Steve Morrison in the back Steve is the former director of the Africa program Good morning General, thank you so much for your remarks and congratulations on all the great work I wanted to focus on the budget and the case that can be made to the American people right now as we all know we're in historically difficult budgetary circumstances right now and DOD in particular with the August package with the super committee with the projections looking forward over the next several years perhaps into the next full decade we're going to see some significant contractions and I would expect at AFRACOM as a relatively new entity with relatively small budgets might actually be quite vulnerable and I wanted to ask you how do you make, you talked about setting priorities and having a regional approach, you're not all that well known to an American public or to a congressional audience or say how do you, where's your thinking right now in terms of making under the current circumstances making the very best, strongest, clearest case to an environment here that is skeptical about putting dollars overseas, scared about our own economy and very divided politically, thank you Thanks Steve, and then in the way back there Sasha Leshna from the Enough Project thank you for your comments General I was pleased to hear you talk about the Lord's Resistance Army and the planning of your speech in terms of priority areas I think it's a very positive development that the Pentagon is deploying some military advisors to the LRA conflict in support of the existing efforts and so my question about that deployment was how long do you see that as going forward we've been pretty disappointed with the results from the Ugandan army to date and is there any effort to increase the number and the quality of troops from Uganda that's being deployed out there they do have more elite forces for example the Presidential Guard Brigade is there an effort to try to increase the quality of those forces thank you let's start with that, we'll come back for another round if it's okay I'll just take them in sequence so Dave on the ISR question the first answer is no commander would ever say he or she has enough ISR so I mean it's an insatiable appetite I think but I have to tell you that given the missions that Africa command has been handed we've had the ISR necessary to accomplish those missions it's principally been focused unsurprisingly in East Africa more recently and currently heavy emphasis in Libya and then more broadly in the Sahel focused on al-Qaida in the lands of the Islamic Maghreb the near term challenge I think will be as NATO contemplates concluding Operation Unified Protector the NATO mission in Libya to which the United States has contributed a pretty significant level of of collection assets how much of that do I need to keep as Unified Protector ends and Libya comes the Libya mission set comes back to Africa command in a normalized relationship we're going through that drill right now but I think for the near term because of the threat of proliferation of weapons principally because of the the National Transitional Council hopefully at some point interim government's interest in securing their own borders will have a sustained US ISR present at least for the next several months my guess is it will probably be a little bit less than what's there right now it'll be a little more focused perhaps on the borders less focused on targeting which the assets are doing now in support of the NATO mission and more broadly supportive of border security and again tracking these the trafficking routes for weapons so I think that part will continue as always we've got to watch very carefully there will always be pressure to reduce and so one of my responsibilities is to continue to convey through General Dempsey and to Secretary Panetta of what our operational requirements are so far Africa has Africa's requirements have been very well supported and I think we'll be okay with that regard the other challenge we face of course is for emerging requirements and the challenge there is access and basing where we are almost wholly reliant upon host nations to provide that basing and access so if there were to be an emerging crisis elsewhere in the continent then we obviously would have to wrestle through the issues of basing and overflight on the budget the question is first of all there is a state led department of state led man pads task force that has been operating now for a couple of months actually with regional partners in different countries if you will to make sure that border security issues are addressing this concern there have been discussions very recently with senior members of the National Transitional Council it's very clear to me in a meeting that I attended with Chairman Jalil and others the National Transitional Council recognizes that concern and understands their responsibilities to control the weapons first of all try to regain control of those which have fallen outside of the government's control so I think everything is on the table whether it's a buy back program or others I think are all being considered there are some worrying indicators that some man pads type non-specific have left the country and I would just tell you that in my recent travels to most of the neighboring countries this is near the top of their security agenda and they're focusing significant collection and law enforcement and military efforts to counter this threat they all understand the seriousness of this proliferation of weapons so I don't know the specifics but certainly it's a worrying trend on the budget we are in the greater scheme of things pretty small potatoes in the budget area and my guess is at some point somebody will propose the notion that says well just do away with Africa command I suppose if somebody made that proposal and they looked at it they probably find it wouldn't make much difference in the budget world the approach I take is I think that we get disproportionate effect for a very modest investment it is sometimes a tough sell to say again why should we be spending money in Africa where we ought to be spending money at home it is the long standing debate of prevention versus response and so I think Libya might be instructive in this regard and of course you can never exactly equate things but we're in a billion in the neighborhood of a billion spending on military operations in Libya maybe, just maybe you could avoid a future exercise like that through the expenditure and the investment of some millions of dollars over time to help build the capacity of African states security forces to behave in responsible ways they're professional, they're capable they're responsive to legitimate civilian control they're supportive of the people of the country it's an imprecise argument because you can't prove the negative but I believe that that effort, that relatively small effort paid in prevention and deterrence building partner capacity I think will pay off for us in the long run it won't prevent every emerging crisis but what we strive to do is again by increasing the defense capabilities of our African partners and of the regional organizations help them build the capacity not only to prevent hostilities but it should prevention fail to be able to more effectively respond to these emerging crisis without us having to become involved and I think that's the direction that we clearly want to head in finally I would say on the budget at least at present there is certainly in my mind and I think in many others there is a very real threat to America from these violent organizations that exist in Africa we've got to address that again mission failure is that threat comes home here and we've got to do all that we can to prevent that from occurring having said that I understand very clearly we're going to be in some tough budget discussions but I think we have a pretty good case to make lastly to the Lord's Resistance Army I have to tell you six months ago I didn't know anything about the Lord's Resistance Army you start to learn a little bit about this and if you ever had any question if there is evil in this world is resident in the person of Joseph Coney and in that organization we now have legislation that requires us to help address the problem of the Lord's Resistance Army and of course rule number one for the military is we follow the law so there's a law that tells us to do this in the four nation boundary of Uganda Democratic Republic of Congo Central African Republic and now the Republic of South Sudan the small group of the Lord's Resistance Army continues to terrorize they continue to murder they continue to kidnap people the Ugandan People's Defense Force has been kind of a leading effort in this regard they have had some successes they have had some recent successes in killing and capturing some members of the Lord's Resistance Army but none of the senior leaders my best estimate at present is that Coney and the senior leaders are probably in the Central African Republic the Ugandan People's Defense Forces is shifting their effort in that area our role so far has been in facilitating intelligence we're hopeful here in the very near future to be able to increase the number of US military advisors and trainers in that regard there is a joint combined intel ops center that is manned almost exclusively by Africans some small representation there to coordinate the efforts of all the different organizations the US in a State Department led effort trained very effectively trained a battalion of the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo that's operating in northeast DRC now in this effort and we're in discussions with the DRC about increasing that effort training another battalion to help address this the Lord's Resistance Army the outcome is clear that the Africans that are participating in these missions kill or capture Coney and his senior leaders and protect the citizenry particularly in that four state area and I'm convinced that those four nations are committed to that mission let's go with Tony welcome sir Tony Carroll with Manchester trade and I teach at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies at this very stage about two years ago or three years ago former assistant secretary of state described Afro commas, Peace Corps and steroids we talked a little bit about the security mission of the Africa command but I'd like for you to address maybe some of the softer part of your command the unusual ability of your establishment institutions within your establishment to respond to humanitarian crises whether they be in the construction of dams and water supply whether they be the construction of emergency food storage whether they help in the areas of health supply chain management these are special skills that you have and are needed in Africa and as a Peace Corps volunteer I don't feel threatened by a former Peace Corps volunteer I don't feel threatened that in the right space could do great good as well as your security mission thank you Tony, let's go to Ed and then the lady Ed first the center general thank you working thank you very much I'm Ed Barber from Good Works International Andrew Young's consulting firm been working on Africa for 20 years and this is pure coincidence but my question follows right on Tony's I was wondering about the economic or quasi economic dimensions of your activities in Africa dating way back in the 80s I was an admirer of the West Africa training crews and the civic action projects you all sometimes undertook in connection with that crews building a farm to market bridge in a remote part of Mauritania or donating a couple of patrol boats to Senegal to enable them to enforce their offshore fishing jurisdiction and I wondered to what extent those kinds of functions might continue or will they be squeezed out by budget pressures these are sometimes extraordinarily useful projects small bucks but making a big difference and again as Tony said some of them are areas where you have unique capabilities thank you and there's the lady right behind thank you good morning sir my name is Rachel Smith Headquarters Department of the Army G357 going back to the budget question with the reduced budget what are your thoughts regarding China's increased spending on the continent and your perspective are we going to fall too far behind as a strategic partner with our African partners can I just add on to Tony so kind of perhaps maybe to be specific to whether Africa is engaged in the Somalia humanitarian aspect of that as well thanks for that set and we'll come back for one more okay alright thanks the lack of a better term the non-traditional military activities of the command are just as important as the military side in fact you could probably make a pretty good argument because those contribute significantly to the underlying causes of instability across the continent perhaps those in the long term are more important and I should mention perhaps it's unusual for a guy in uniform but I'm a pretty big fan of the Peace Corps because it may seem a little bit of a non-sequitur but for many Africans the only American that they will ever see in their lives is a Peace Corps volunteer and that one individual or that small team's influence lasts for generations and has a dramatic effect so thanks for volunteering we need more and as you know there are some places in Africa where the security situation is such that Peace Corps operations have been suspended so I think one of our roles is to try to help those countries get back to a situation where Peace Corps can come back in we do focus in a lot of other areas as Tony mentioned to assist in that regard structurally as many of you know we have a deputy commander for civil military activities currently Ambassador Tony Holmes former Ambassador to Burkina Faso many of you know the first was Ambassador Mary Carlin Yates who just formally retired last Friday and in typical Yates family tradition is now back on active duty as the chargé and cartoon I guess that weekend I don't have enough retirement for her I'm not Yeah, Ambassador John Yates is a little puzzled by that but they'll figure that out I think and we have lots of other non-DoD persons on the staff but the other key one I would mention is our senior development advisor Mr. Mark White who comes to us from AID those two senior leaders more than any other are the ones who help us in the command better understand how we can integrate traditional military activities in ways that facilitate those programs so we do that in small ways so for example the Gambia small country they have big flooding problems and those flooding problems you know have a very significant adverse effect on agriculture, on fisheries and what have you so we say how do you do that well let's bring in the Army Corps of Engineers to help do an assessment of how do you know if anybody knows flood control it's kind of the Army Corps of Engineers they know how to do this that's a core competency so that's a way that we can again combine what is largely economic activity with some military support as many of you know there are some there are armed forces US armed forces medical research centers and laboratories in Africa which do great work and I've come to really appreciate what they do what I've asked them to do now that I've learned a little bit about them is to find ways to expand their work increase their collaboration with African national and regional health programs so that we can take this great expertise that is resident in the US military chains and expand that more regionally into African civil society so there are ways to do that one more example again selflessly motivated this battalion that I mentioned training in the Democratic Republic of Congo a very innovative program to help them become self-sustaining with food and so the Borlaug Institute has developed programs for that battalion that they now have their own fish ponds they grow and process their own cassava they have they have chickens yet they have pigs they have cattle for milk and cheese and it's self-sustaining well that's a pretty good thing for a military to have as they travel around other nations South Sudan for example is looking to expand that but there also now several of these militaries are looking at programs of demobilizing and reintegrating former soldiers into civil society this is a program by which they can gain a skill, they gain some agricultural skill and then can transit out of the armed forces and be a meaningful contributor into society so those are a couple of the examples and Tony's right to kind of call me on this as I spoke primarily of the traditional military aspect up front the other activities which we tend to do less visibly which is okay by me in support of either other U.S. organizations African organizations or international organizations our small contributions I think can be meaningful continuing in the economic dimension I would follow up your questions about with a specific focus on maritime security which is so important to so many nations you know some would argue that the genesis of East Africa piracy has its root in the loss of fishing capabilities and income from fisheries off the coast of Somalia so it has certainly has a security angle as well but the economic challenges in the maritime domain are very significant it is important to recognize that almost everything that comes into war comes out of Africa does so by sea and it's been very interesting most Africans don't think of themselves as a maritime continent or as individual maritime states but they truly are and highly dependent upon that so we look for ways in which we can indeed partner with coast guards or navies Liberia for example which had no coast guard a small effort to help them do that conducted patrols in their territorial waters and have done fisheries enforcement in concert with other government officials in Liberia same in many other states as well is an important thing you ask a great question about will these kinds of efforts be sustainable in a declining budget area there are questions being asked about our efforts in Connery narcotics and other illicit trafficking are those core competencies are those things that perhaps are at risk we've got to examine each and every one of those ideally what we want to do is get us out of that business and get the Africans to the point where they can execute these missions with either greatly reduced or no U.S. support but they're not at that point yet and so I think I would make the case that those efforts have to be sustained for at least some period of time right she asked a great question I have to admit it's a little unfair for an army person to be asking another army person but you know there's a great question of China in Africa and first of all they are everywhere in Africa it's not a military rivalry though there are lots of nations which have Chinese military equipment but it's not an adversarial relationship with China I have found in these first couple of months that some African countries are finding that the Chinese often offer military equipment perhaps at lower price than we do but some Africans are finding that without the sustaining programs that come behind that that's not such a great deal so they're looking to us now and say okay we now know why you're more expensive than the Chinese because in three years this airplane this tank this boat that we got from the Chinese is no longer operable whereas the stuff they get from us because we insist upon a sustaining package when they get US military equipment that works up pretty well I'm not particularly concerned about us falling strategically behind China in Africa I think there are certainly some areas that interest are shared and we should further explore those an example would be as I talked with some of you a few weeks ago that Chinese recently provided riverine craft to the Democratic Republic of Congo pretty essential piece of equipment which we don't have much of is useful to the FRDC to have those assets that now along with the training we provide I think gives the FRDC a useful product and I think there are perhaps some other areas perhaps even in the area of professional military education where we might be able to partner with Chinese and others to get bigger bang for the buck in some African countries I believe we are unfortunately out of time I spoke too long I'm sorry no no this is great for someone who didn't spend a day of his career on Africa in 36 years you are certainly a quick study what a pleasure to have you here hear your views really so articulately said and making the case I think for the command and the future of the command here in Washington please join me in thanking General Ham, thank you all for joining us we hope we get you back in the near future thanks thanks thanks


Royce, when you just look at this game, coming down the stretch, how are you guys able to pull out the win? I think just learning from the games that we lost. I mean, just executing down the stretch, getting stops, and then getting a rebound and knocking down free throws at the end. Those are big time free throws. And learning from those games that we lost, and we was in the same situation. When the Rockets went on that run in that fourth quarter to make it a game, what was just the overall message as you guys were saying to each other as a team in the huddle? Just stay composed. I mean, basketball is about the game of runs. I mean, we knew they were going to make a run. It was just a matter of time. And then just sticking with our principals and getting the win down the stretch. When you guys say you learned from the last piece of past three games, what exactly made you help in this one as they cut down this one, gone to five, down to one, and the turnovers, I guess started adding up in that period? Yeah, a couple rebounds that we got. Staying with it, going after the ball at all times. And then guys getting open to get the ball and knock down the free throws. And you know what they're called. Do you see any commonalities in these fourth quarters where, obviously, it didn't happen in Minnesota, but these last games, anything you're saying that's just challenging you guys or they're doing differently of the teams? No, not really. I mean, game by game is different. Different game plans, different solutions. What kind of defensive energy did you come out with tonight to hold them to just 15 points in the first quarter? I mean, whether it was individual efforts or rotations, they'd all seem to be working. Yeah, I think just us being connected as a team, communicating, locking in on the defensive end, getting the stops when we need it, and then that helps out on offense. We get easy transition baskets and boosts everybody's confidence. Do you think this team has a designated closer or is it more of a ride the hot end, down the stretch kind of deal? Yeah, we got, I mean, it just depends. Each game is gonna be different. I mean, we got guys that get hot, knock down open shots. Sometimes it's the guy that's hot and that makes it an extra pass or somebody else. So I think it just depends and you know the versatility. When you look at this one, I know the ending fourth quarter didn't play out how you guys wanted it to, but just how good is it to kind of in that losing streak, get back in the win column and then what can you take from moving forward?  I mean, it was a tough stretch for us.  So we're listening two weeks away from the trade deadline now and obviously there's some uncertainty surrounding this roster. Is there any challenge to tuning out that noise and just playing through that until that day passes? I'm about to go play 2K and FIFA though. You can add me if you want me to. 2K or FIFA, whichever you want me to do. Whatever you want to do. Oh, okay. Thanks guys.