Killing via button is killing many of them &quot;them&quot;. Hacking the innocent&#x27;s chest is killing one of &quot;us&quot;.<p>Part of the dilemma in this thought experiment is basically about weighing the worth of the lives of unknown numbers of &quot;them&quot;, against one of &quot;us&quot;.<p>The President must distinguish &quot;them&quot; or &quot;us&quot;, otherwise he has no business leading the country in a war. He must treat the killing of one of &quot;us&quot; with a different judgment.<p>The other part of this is remote controlled killing versus visceral engagement.  Suppose that pushing the button is the right thing to do for the country, but the President has a personal aversion against the bloody engagement form of killing. As President, he&#x27;s supposed to push, but a personal, psychological reason is preventing him from doing it as a man.