An abiding goal: Topple Hussein

WASHINGTON - Among the photographs outside the office of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz is one where the veteran foreign policy official is flanked by Vice President Dick Cheney, his boss at the Pentagon of the first Bush administration, and his current boss, Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Playfully signed by Cheney - "Paul, Who's the best Secretary of Defense you ever worked for? Dick" - it is more than just a picture of old friends who find themselves in the trenches together again.

In this Bush administration, it is a portrait of a powerful and disciplined team of like-minded hard-liners that is wielding extraordinary influence on foreign policy, edging into the domain of the State Department and shaping the debate on such issues as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the specter of a U.S.-led invasion to rid Iraq and the region of Saddam Hussein.