Completely agree Iraqi politics were not always about sect, in fact for most of Iraqi history it was not, but since 2003 it has become one about conflicting politics of identity.
For the best book about this check out Fanar Haddad's Sectarianism in Iraq. He argues that sect and identity are constantly changing and based upon the socio-political-economic situation in the country.
http://www.amazon.com/Sectarianism-I...s=fanar+haddad
Here's an interview I did with Fanar as well:
http://www.musingsoniraq.blogspot.co...ianism-in.html
Another good book is by Harith Hasan's Imagining the Nation Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-political Conflict in Iraq. Harith's thesis is that Iraq suffers from failed state building and that is what has given rise to the current trend of sectarianism in the country. The state has failed to create a shared sense of identity and history and that's what has given rise to the current wave of sectarianism
http://www.amazon.com/Imagining-Nati...ing+the+nation
Here's an interview I did with Harith
http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.com/20...tionalism.html
Finally here is an article that I wrote about how the current Sunni sectarian identity is in fact a recent creation that came out of the community's inability to deal with the changes in Iraq after 2003
http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.com/20...raq-after.html
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