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30% of Iraqi marriages are mixed, i.e. a Shia-Sunni marriage. Many tribes have both Shia and Sunni factions. Thus, there are familial ties. Additionally, despite the fact that Iraq was a modern nation-state creation, a shared Iraqi identity was built amonst the Shia and Sunni, as not all Sunni shared the spoils of Saddam's reign, especially in the later years as Saddam's inner circle became more and more a familial and tribal cast of characters.
That is the foundation that exists. However, the past four years have been hard, and so there is definitely some strain. Are the sectarian tensions that have been fomented by AQI, which eventually unleashed the fury of Sadr's and Badr's death squads and created a cycle of violence once Sistani could no longer keep Sadr's and Badr's minions in check, irreversible? I don't think so. It will take a secure state to eliminate the zero sum game and Hobbesian behaviors that have been created in the security vacuum, but I think that this is achievable.
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"So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand." Thucydides 1.20.3
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