I am not disputing your reasoning. Again my point is, if POTUS wants to protect American lives, do not invade a country like Saddm’s Iraq which did not threaten attacking United States of America, and did not even have the means to deliver his puny chemical WMD’s to US soil.
On the other hand N. Korea is headed by a crazy man who has openly said he will attack United States with nukes, unless we give in to his demands. And NK already has nukes and testing ICBM’s.
Not terribly likely. The greater strategic threat from NK is selling WMDs to other nations and/or terrorist organizations. I would argue that's far more dangerous than being a direct threat as a nation. It's relatively easy to keep one nation contained. It's very difficult to halt numerous state and non-state entities in the same way.