The liberation of Ramadi from the terrorist group Daesh is certainly a big victory for Baghdad, and could be the beginning of a campaign to liberate other cities and Iraqi territories still in the clutch of this extremist grouping.

“This great victory has broken the back of Daesh and represents a launching pad for the liberation of Nineveh,” said parliament speaker Salim Al Juburi.

Nineveh is home to Mosul, Iraq’s second city, from where over a year and a half ago the Daesh head proclaimed his “caliphate”, straddling Iraq and Syria.

Mosul, then, is next on the radar of the Iraqi government; its recapture would change the tide in the war in Iraq to the advantage of the Baghdad government, a physical victory that would reclaim vast swathes of the country, but also a moral victory that is bound to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis as a whole.

The divide between the Sunni and Shiite Iraqis remains the biggest battle that has yet to be waged and won.

The fall of Ramadi, Mosul and other important Iraqi cities to Daesh was due in part to the deep divisions between and varying loyalties of the Iraqi people.

When the country is rescued from the hands of terrorist Daesh, the healing process of the three main ethic and religious Iraqi communities starts.

It is not going to be easy because the rift, particularly the one along religious lines, has been there for many long years and made too many victims to be easily bridged.

If Iraq is to become anew an important country in the area — and it has all the potential to become so — its people have to be at peace with each other.

A truth and reconciliation commission, emulating the one of South Africa, composed of eminent representatives of the major Iraqi groups to look into this deep-seating animosity and find the right answers could help.

Knowing the nature of the wounds, holding celebrations for the recapture of any city from the claws of extremists is shallow.

The real causes for the problems in Iraq — aside from the major damage caused by the American intervention — need to be acknowledged and dealt with properly and effectively before Iraqis, Arabs in general, can be jubilant.