U.S. show of force to North Korea also could show U.S. weakness

NK will send its missiles in international waters this time. US will not shot them down.

Win win.

NK can claim US was too scared to shot them down and US can claim NK was too scared to send missiles close to Japan or Korea.

It depends on how it all plays out...but it seems like the US has little choice at the moment. Decades of poor US foreign policy have helped to paint the US into a corner. If North Korea, a country that for decades has been saying it will develop nukes and will use them, had been front and foremost on the agenda instead of Iraq, a country that stated it had no WMD, when the US launched its invasion in 2003, the world would not be in this situation.

The war in Iraq was a strategic failure on two fronts vis-a-vis North Korea as it stands today. It failed to deal with the rising threat of NK while it simultaneously diminished perceptions of America's invulnerability.... The Teddy Roosevelt maxim of 'Walk softly, carry a big stick' was ignored, leaving the US with little choice in the present situation.

In 2003, Iran was terrified by the stick America wielded...but it saw in Iraq how that stick could be whittled away in the vacuum of aftermath. The ensuing power vacuum created an ascendant Iran, the rise of ISIS and destablization in a region that once quivered at the threat of American force...While North Korea continuously expanded its capabilities. America showed its weakness 14 years ago by picking the wrong battle...

@boweevil: I agree, this is a problem 2 decades in the making for failing to take action against NK when the risk of nuclear catastrophe wasn't even on the table. I can understand that no one wanted to be responsible for a war that could potentially kill millions, but the stakes are multitudes higher now. The last diplomatic hope is China who could presumably influence a regime change or something if things were on the brink, but that is looking very unlikely seeing as NK now has nukes

Everyone knows Syria got tomahawks striked was due to Syria lacking nuclear arsenals to fight back! North Korea has full power of nuclear retaliations if she choose a suicide attack! America's weakness is bullying non-nuclear armed countries only!