There won’t be a civil war. Unless there is. But Iraqi forces can handle it. Unless they can’t.

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Via the Guardian:

Earlier this week Mr Rumsfeld said reports had overestimated the possibility of civil war breaking out in Iraq following the sectarian clashes provoked after insurgents destroyed an important Shia shrine in Samarra last month.

Today he conceded there was a high level of “tension in the country, sectarian tension and conflict,” but he added that it had not yet become a civil war “by most experts’ calculation.”

Mr Rumsfeld said: “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.”

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