Just hours before his State of the Union address on Tuesday — “North Korea’s reckless pursuit of nuclear missiles could very soon threaten our homeland.” — President Trump’s administration dropped its plan to nominate Victor D. Cha for the ambassador to South Korea. Cha had a fallout with the administration over a plan to carry out a preventive military strike against North Korea. He’s against what he called a “bloody nose” strategy in a Washington Post op-ed. He argues the administration is pushing for it. As part of a reoccurring annual military exercise, the U.S. and South Korea conducted drills that simulated strikes on North Korean nuclear and missile testing sites. And the U.S. military itself has been quietly prepping for a last resort war with North Korea. The idea behind the bloody-nose strategy is to use military force against North Korea, but not so destructive that it would trigger a retaliatory strike. The most obvious target would be a nuclear site, but many of North Korea’s missile-building sites are unknown and others are buried too deep underground to reach. Proponents argue that an early limited strike could make North Korea think twice about continuing its nuclear program. On the other hand, it could be that floating an airstrike combined with saber-rattling rhetoric is just an elaborate psychological operation designed to get inside Kim Jong-un’s head. But Cha and other experts have previously contended that a military confrontation is ill advised. “This is not firing 59 Tomahawk missiles at an air base in Syria, or dropping a bomb on a set of bunkers in Afghanistan. This would be — this would be a conflict like we have not seen.” His fear is that a bloody nose could quickly turn into a full-blown war.