Ethnosectarian

Since it is clear that no amount of modernization is likely to eliminate (through total assimilation) minority solidarity groups, the possibility for ethnosectarian conflict remains a constant danger should the conflict-precipitating circumstances arise.

The political and economic history (especially post-Islamic) of Southwest, Central, and South Asia is marked by episodic ethnosectarian persecutions and massive forced and voluntary movements of the various population groupings.

Moreover, language, discourse, and dialogue, their definition and mobilisation, create chains of equivalence which enclose subjects within not only ethnosectarian but at times entirely self-referential and self-sustained notions of identity, practice and collective devotion.

"What Iraq needs is leaders who have deep roots here, who have proven themselves to be effective and trusted by the Iraqi public," says Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar, a Governing Council member who represents a large tribal confederation. "The most important thing that should happen is we should stop looking at Iraq through this ethnosectarian lens."

Given that military intervention has deepened rather than weakened ethnosectarian divisions, the intriguing question becomes whether that was the game plan all along.