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The U.S.-backed military operation to rescue Mosul from the grip of ISIS appears to be on the brink of success. But a military victory over the extremist group is only the beginning of building a stable Iraq, a country where current conditions could incubate an "ISIS 2.0."

In two weeks of meetings in Iraq with dozens of government and civil society leaders, we heard that Iraq's political dysfunction is likely to cripple any recovery and that Iraqis desperately need and still trust the U.S. to help heal their painful divisions.

Human tragedy continues to stoke anger and fear, these leaders said. A tribal sheikh from Nineveh told us that more than 300 people have been killed or kidnapped from just a dozen of his villages. ISIS continues to sow division in the Sunni communities it lost by spreading rumors about who was complicit in its crimes. Officials and activists reported blacklists and said internment camps have been set up for alleged "ISIS families."

These gaping societal wounds, beneath the overlay of existential political power struggles, threaten the military gains of the past three years and will leave Iraq susceptible to violent extremism that spreads beyond its borders. Without a concerted effort to stop revenge killings and promote lasting local and national reconciliation, there is grave potential for an even more virulent form of terrorism to emerge.

Many Iraqis are ready to take on this monumental challenge, but they need help. Bridging the country's deep, complex divisions will require that the U.S., the United Nations and other international players push for political and economic compromise by Iraqis and regional power brokers.

That will require sustained attention to the "Three Rs:" Relief, Reconstruction and Reconciliation, all of which are needed concurrently. Relief means not only continued humanitarian aid but also security assistance to protect reconstruction and reconciliation and to facilitate the return of 3 million displaced people.

Political and social reconciliation, in turn, will be needed to prevent violence and reprisals and make way for sustainable reconstruction. The U.S. should develop a plan to help resolve fundamental national and regional political issues that will allow Iraq's constellation of groups to co-exist in peace.

Already, unity is fraying among forces that stood against ISIS. Sinjar, Tel Afar and Tuz Khurmatu have emerged as flashpoints of incipient conflict. Wrangling between the Kurds and Baghdad over oil, territory and Kurdish independence continues as regional powers such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey as well as Iraqi groups jockey for influence. Since the ISIS onslaught in 2014, for example, Popular Mobilization Forces militias, most supported by Iran, have established offices all over Iraq 16 just in one town south of Mosul, Iraqis tell us in a bid to gain control in areas recaptured from ISIS. As next year's parliamentary elections approach, they'll be well positioned to buy cooperation, exert authority and support to candidates, further solidifying their grip.

At the same time as talks for political reconciliation grind on in Baghdad, it's been shown that Iraqi tribal and community leaders, with solid international backing, can devise local agreements that restore peace to their devastated cities, towns and villages. Experienced Iraqi facilitators have guided six successful negotiations for reconciliation with our Institute's support, including one that averted collective revenge over the 2014 ISIS slaughter of 1,700 Shia cadets near Tikrit in northern Iraq. More than 380,000 people from the city and the surrounding province were able to return home as a result. This month, the same Iraqi organizations helped 114 sheikhs from southwest Kirkuk reach an agreement to revise tribal law so it supports state judicial mechanisms. The tribal leaders are convinced these stunning reforms will help achieve justice, security and stability in their areas after liberation from ISIS.

Such successful examples of reconciliation, accomplished in cooperation with provincial and central government officials, demonstrate that Iraqis can achieve sustainable peace. They just need the bulwark of U.S. and international support for the time being. Certainly, the challenges of unwinding Iraq's kaleidoscope of conflicts can't be underestimated. But it's the only way the country can recover from lingering effects of decades of war and prevent the emergence of yet another threat to U.S. and global security.

Sarhang Hamasaeed is director of Middle East programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace, and Michael Yaffe is vice president of the institute's Center for the Middle East and Africa.

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In Iraq, military defeat of ISIS is only the beginning - Washington Examiner