If Iran nukes Argentina, what then?

Does anyone remember that the worst massacre of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust occurred in 1994, when the Argentine Israel Mutual Association was bombed in Buenos Aires? Nearly 100 people died and 250 were injured.

Mark Steyn points out that this incident was the second major Iranian-sponsored attack in Buenos Aires.

The year before, 1993, a Hezbollah suicide bomber killed 29 people and injured hundreds more in an attack on the Israeli Embassy. In the case of the community center bombing, the killer had flown from Lebanon a few days earlier and entered Latin America through the porous tri-border region of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.

What if Iran had had a nuclear weapon shipped to Hezbollah?

Would it have been any less easy to get it into the country? And, if a significant chunk of downtown Buenos Aires were rendered uninhabitable, what would the Argentine government do?

He points out that it is easy for Iran to project itself to South America, but Argentina would not, and could not attach Iran in conventional ways.

In such a scenario, what would the international community do? Would the US and/or Europe be willing to retaliate?

Mr. Steyn tells that

...a quarter-century ago, there was a minor British pop hit called “Ayatollah, Don’t Khomeini Closer.” If you’re a U.S. diplomat or a British novelist, a Croat Christian or an Argentine Jew, he’s already come way too close. How much closer do you want him to get?

Please read the whole incisive article, Facing Down Iran, in the City Journal.

[Iran] [Jews] [Israel] [nuclear] [Argentina]