My point isn't about North Korea. I was making a mildly cynical, mostly just plain true statement about the morality of American Presidents, which is that they'd rather let thousands to millions of people die before they take action; that way they are the "reluctant hero" instead of the "questionable initiator." Ie, if they strike first and decapitate North Korea and therefore we never have to worry about nukes, they'd probably be ridiculed and their presidency would be in jeopardy, but if they wait until North Korea launches first then they'd probably blast that nuke button as hard as they can to rack up the brownie points for their "bold retaliatory strike."