Cheney Pushing Bush Toward Military Option On Iran

Dick Cheney is winning a West Wing power struggle, pushing the president toward the threat of military action against Iran, the Guardian reports. After an internal review over the last month, Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates favor continued diplomacy, but are said to be losing the argument. "Bush is not going to leave office with Iran in limbo," a Washington source tells the paper.

The president and VP do not trust any of the likely successors of either party to act decisively to halt Iran's development of nuclear weapons. "Cheney has limited capital left," an analyst tells the Guardian, "but if he wanted to use all his capital on this one issue, he could still have an impact." No decision on military action is expected until next year. (More Dick Cheney stories.)