The Wall Street Journal reported last night that the Trump regime is considering a "limited" strike on North Korea which they're referring to as a "bloody nose" strategy.
U.S. officials are quietly debating whether it’s possible to mount a limited military strike against North Korean sites without igniting an all-out war on the Korean Peninsula.
The idea is known as the “bloody nose” strategy: React to some nuclear or missile test with a targeted strike against a North Korean facility to bloody Pyongyang’s nose and illustrate the high price the regime could pay for its behavior. The hope would be to make that point without inciting a full-bore reprisal by North Korea.
It’s an enormously risky idea, and there is a debate among Trump administration officials about whether it is feasible.
The primary proponent of this strategy is National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster according to the Wall Street Journal and other publications that corroborated the report. McMaster is opposed by Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who both think it's a terrible idea.
I believe if launching a limited "bloody nose" attack on North Korea without provoking a deadly response were possible, it would have been done a very long time ago by a previous administration. If at any point, it would have made more sense over 10 years ago before the North demonstrated the capability to deploy nuclear weapons on long-range missiles.
If anyone else occupied the White House right now, I probably wouldn't spend more than a fleeting moment considering the possibility, but Trump is unstable and unpredictable. Who the hell knows what he's going to do about any particular thing on any particular day?