Putin and Iran getting to be too close for comfort

Ok the US has lined itself up with some pretty dubious leaders in the past because it was politically and/or strategically prudent, or at least practical. Difficult to believe that Washington sided with Saddam Hussein during the long war between Iraq and Iran in the 1980s. The US not only supported Saddam but gave him weapons. But then Tehran was regarded as more evil than Baghdad. So it made sense. In 2003 it was a different matter altogether. Saddam had to be eliminated and regime-changed. Everyone seemed to agree. Today Iraq is still a mess and a potboiler of varying extremes. But the real worry is Iran, and now especially because of evidence of a growing love affair between Putin and the Ayatollahs. Trust Putin to buddy up to the one country that is implacably hostile to the US. Russia is now due to get hundreds of armed drones built by Iran to deploy against Ukrainian targets. No wonder the Pentagon is getting worried. Drones are playing a big role in the war in Ukraine, and Russia is getting short of drones, as well as other vital weapons including precision-guided bombs and short-range ballistic missiles. So Iran's support for Putin is good news for the Russian leader who needs all the help he can get and bad news for both the Kyiv government and for Nato. Putin has also been cosying up to Xi Zinping but the Chinese leader is in so much trouble with rising debt and growing protests against his financial mismanagment of the country's finances that, as yet, he hasn't taken sides with Moscow to the extent of offering military help. Tehran had no compunction. The Ayatollahs need the cash.