How Congress Can Preserve NATO and Greenland: Using 22 USC 1928f to Protect the Peace
The Honorable Alberto J. Mora
Former General Counsel of the Department of the Navy
Just Security
January 16, 2026
In his 1961 farewell address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked the American people be strong in their faith that “all nations would reach peace with justice.” He requested further that our country be “unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nation’s great goals.” Understanding the vast power at the disposal of the strongest military the world had ever known, the former five-star general of World War II and president made a point with his final words in office, calling on his fellow countrymen to understand the dangers such strength creates without an adherence to collective morals and values.
Arrogance, the antithesis of that humility, is pernicious. It spreads like wildfire, consuming everything around it and leaving in its destructive wake the smoldering ash of relationships, friendships, and partnerships. Its bellowing smoke clouds vision, isolating and insulating individuals and organizations from constructive criticism and innovative thought. In the private sector, arrogance may yield short-term gains but is ultimately disastrous for sustained success. To phrase it more succinctly, if you’re lucky, you might get rich, but it will never make you truly wealthy.
In the public sector, the impacts of arrogance are more egregious, with consequences rippling across communities, academia, cultures, ethnicities. When viewed further through the lenses of national security and foreign policy, the effects can be cataclysmic: families destroyed, lives lost. These ramifications may last for years, if not generations, eroding trust in institutions, safety within communities, and confidence between allies. For instance, according to a Gallup poll in May 2025, 69 percent of adult Americans have little to no trust that the government works in the best interest of society.
On this day dedicated to his memory, we recall the words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who, like Eisenhower, spoke of humility and of arrogance. He viewed the U.S. government’s overconfidence as a blight founded in hypocrisy, staining the character of the nation and its citizens. During his April 1967 address in support of ending the Vietnam War and in the shadow of segregation, King delivered this message with blunt elegance:
“…But honesty impels me to admit that our power has often made us arrogant.
We are arrogant in our contention that we have some sacred mission to protect people from totalitarian rule while we make little use of our power to end the evils of South Africa and Rhodesia, and while we in fact support dictatorships with guns and money under the guise of fighting communism.
We often arrogantly feel that we have some divine, messianic mission to police the whole world. We are arrogant, as Senator Fullbright has said, to think ourselves “God’s avenging angels.” We are arrogant in not allowing young nations to go through the same growing pains, turbulence and revolution that characterized our history.
We are arrogant in professing to be concerned about the freedom of foreign nations while not setting our own house in order. …Our arrogance can be our doom.”
Fifty-nine years later, this theme remains salient as a foundational thread within national security and foreign policy. Recent events do not simply mimic the maelstrom of domestic and international turmoil in King’s era but are deeply committed reenactments of those same egotistical decisions across multiple areas of policy.
