If you’re looking for evidence that a nuclear Iran would be very difficult (if not impossible) to “contain,” visit Buenos Aires. Between 1992 and 1994, the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah launched not one but two murderous attacks in the Argentine capital, bombing both the Israeli embassy and a Jewish community center. It is widely believed that Tehran was involved in plotting the deadly explosions. If a non-nuclear Iranian government felt bold enough to mastermind such horrendous attacks in a faraway, seemingly random country, just imagine how aggressive a nuclear-armed Iran might be.

Argentines obviously remember the two bombings, and they (along with everyone else) have good reason to worry about Iran’s growing footprint in Latin America. The Iranian leadership has developed a close working relationship with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez, and it has also reached out to Chávez acolytes in Bolivia (Evo Morales) and Nicaragua (Daniel Ortega). Like Iran, Venezuela is a state sponsor of terrorism whose government harbors a messianic and virulently anti-American worldview. Though some analysts have tried to minimize its significance, the Tehran-Caracas alliance now represents the biggest threat to hemispheric stability, a reality that the Obama administration simply cannot ignore.