Eight years of Barack Obama’s tenure has come to an end.  We are also winding down on the first, and maybe last, term of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani.  This should mark the long overdue end of the U.S.-Iran appeasement doctrine, based on a mirage of “reformists” and/or “moderates” actually existing inside the extremist establishment ruling Iran. If you search mainstream media for news about Iran, there has always seemed to be an ongoing deafening chorus of “reformists” gaining the upper hand.  This has a long history. When then-senior cleric Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani became president back in 1989, many claimed he was a newly found “reformist,” forgetting his role as commander of Iran’s armed forces through the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq War and the horrific summer 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners across Iran.  Rafsanjani can also be dubbed the father of Iran’s nuclear weapons...(Read Full Post)