The Trump administration wants very much to be seen as being "tough" against the nuclear-capable North Korea. Toward this end, Team Trump is currently debating how large a military strike on the country they think they might be able to get away with before North Korea started shooting back.
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.
The success of such a plan is premised on the notion that there is some group of non-halfwit individuals in the upper ranks of the Trump White House who can accurately guess the reactions and intents of the similarly trigger-happy North Korean leadership, and tailor a military strike accordingly. So let's take a look at the players and see where they fall on the non-halfwit scale.
Within the Trump administration, officials say, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis remain focused on trying to get a broader diplomatic effort under way to rein in the North Korean nuclear program. National security adviser H.R. McMaster is arguing more vocally, publicly and privately, that military options need to be considered.
Oh, H.R. McMaster is spearheading the let's-bomb-something approach. Well that should go swimmingly. Surely, a genius like H.R. McMaster has the best possible insights into how to start a war with an unstable foreign power in which that unstable power won't bother firing back.
It also may explain why the Centers for Disease Control, now helmed by Trump appointee Brenda Fitzgerald, is now planning a briefing on how the American public can prepare for nuclear war. You know, just in case H.R. McMaster and company turn out to be not half as clever as they think they are.