As for Russia, hardly at war with them either. Trump is Putin's bitch.
So basically what the fuck are you talking about?
If you would like some deeper discussion on the topic there is a halfway decent talk from Professor Jiang on DOAC. [1] He had many of the same predictions I had mentioned here on HN some time back which nobody here agreed with and they have all come true. We are just getting started in this quagmire.
Don't let Fox news mislead people into thinking that air strikes will do anything to end this.
[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTJGr78-zyw [video][2 hours, 11 minutes]
Yes the US was paying extortion money. Billions. Iran wanted more. It's all moot at this point, Israel attacked Iran and the US agreed to assist them. Trying to bully Trump was a mistake as they found out. For what it's worth it was not "working". Iran was still enriching Uranium and would have eventually become a nuclear power which nobody in the middle east or Europe wants. Iran has missiles that can almost reach Europe and they were not far away from extending that range. It was time to put the bully down, though I do not agree with the way it is being done. Air strikes are like playing whack-a-mole. Boots will be required on the ground to take over the under-mountain missile cities and that will be a shit show. I can completely understand their hesitation to do it.