Rumsfeld was pressed to explain the U.S. military's plan to respond in the event that Iraq's sectarian violence grows into a full-fledged civil war.

"The plan is to prevent a civil war, and to the extent one were to occur, to have the — from a security standpoint — have the Iraqi security forces deal with it, to the extent they are able to," Rumsfeld said.

In other words, "Try to stay in the way as long as possible, but hopefully jump out of the way of the speeding train at the last second."

Rumsfeld, Rice Say Iraq Not at Civil War - Yahoo! News