Yesterday President Trump stood for a photo op with a room full of military leaders and announced unprompted that “maybe it’s the calm before the storm.”

Although neither the president nor the White House has offered a clarification for the comment - despite a ceaseless deluge of “what storm?” questions and speculation from the media and elsewhere.

However it’s not hard to put two and two together.

According to a report from the Mirror:

North Korea is set to test-fire a new “high range” missile capable of hitting the US mainland, a Russian lawmaker claims.

Anton Morozov revealed Pyongyang’s plans as he returned from a five-day visit to the hermit state - where the mood is “rather belligerent” - with a Russian delegation.

He claims North Korean officials gave the Russians mathematical calculations showing that the intercontinental ballistic missile could reach targets on the U.S. west coast.

Such a test would force the U.S. to accept that Kim Jong Un could conceivably destroy a major west coast city, such as Los Angeles or San Francisco, killing millions of Americans.

It is possible and a clear White House concern that North Korea could be easily provoked into such an action irrationally under the leadership of a “madman”:

Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 22, 2017

After all, the North Korean government has not too long ago threatened to destroy Japan, bluntly stating “Japan is no longer needed to exist near us” even while testing missiles over Japanese territory.

It’s also possible that North Korea will make “rational” demands upon the United States once it has demonstrated it’s capable of hitting the American mainland, such as a demand that the U.S. withdraw completely from the Korean peninsula, which would create a military vacuum that Kim will doubtlessly seek to exploit.

Morally, as well as for other reasons, diplomacy must be exhausted before engaging in military conflict.

However, President Trump has repeatedly indicated that the exhaustion point for diplomacy with North Korea has long been met:

Presidents and their administrations have been talking to North Korea for 25 years, agreements made and massive amounts of money paid……

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2017

…hasn't worked, agreements violated before the ink was dry, makings fools of U.S. negotiators. Sorry, but only one thing will work!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2017

We can hope, and we should pray, that a preemptive strike will not be necessary to quell either the paranoia and ambition (depending on how one chooses to interpret it) that fuels Kim Jong Un’s aggression.

However, a missile test demonstrating an ability to strike mainland America would understandably prompt an American military response.

However, as a great British poet once wrote:

Now, crying won’t help you. Praying won’t do you no good
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.

[Note: This post was written by dk. Find him online at the African American Conservatives (AACONS) website or AACONS on Twitter and Facebook]