After nearly nine years of being entrenched in a country that was mistakenly accused of connections with the 9/11 attack on America, virtually all U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by year’s end. At long last, and with profound relief. The troops’ arrival home should result in a reduction of defense expenditures and war-time training levels, aiding America’s economic recovery and limiting military presence to where it belongs: in Afghanistan, where the terrorism assault of the U.S. was designed.

Nearly all of the 41,000 U.S. military personnel now in Iraq, including 700 soldiers assigned to the 25th Infantry Division based at Oahu’s Schofield Barracks, will be departing Iraq, most of them by Christmas. That will leave a few more than 150 Defense Department personnel, including soldiers, to secure the American Embassy in Baghdad. Maintaining thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq as trainers of security forces was withdrawn after Iraq refused to grant them legal immunity.

"The last American soldier will cross the border out of Iraq with their heads held high," President Barack Obama said on Friday, "proud of their success and knowing that the American people stand united in our support for our troops."

Indeed, American troops can take pride in their service in Iraq, although the country’s stability is far from assured. "I just hope the bad guys don’t load up again. As soon as we back off, the insurgents start up again," a soldier at Schofield told the Star-Advertiser. "The religious factions there are never going to settle their differences."

Obama opposed the war in Iraq from its beginning and during his 2007 campaign. The Bush administration had attacked Iraq based on terrible intelligence that Iraq somehow was in cahoots with the 9/11 attackers. Obama began reducing the troops in Iraq and increasing them in Afghanistan upon taking office. He declared more than a year ago that the U.S. combat mission there was over.

Hawaii’s U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono is right in saying that the lives lost — and "the $1 trillion that has been added to our national debt — has been tragic." She also points out that maintaining a strong military able to respond to threats should be combined with "diplomacy to achieve and keep the peace, and oppose ill-considered international military entanglements."

At the war’s peak, 180,000 troops were in Iraq — and the cost of battle has been mind-boggling. The toll on troops who served and on their family and friends is immeasurable: The latest count shows 3,525 U.S. personnel killed in action in Iraq; 957 others died of other causes. More than 32,000 have been wounded over the nine-year campaign. Veterans’ physical and emotional re-entry back into American society has, and will, continue to deserve a wide range of support.

The cost, literally, to the U.S. economy has been devastating. The Pentagon’s direct spending on the war in Iraq nears $800 billion, but that total surpasses $1 trillion when extra spending for combat veterans is included, according to a recent study. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated a figure nearly double that. Other estimates total as much as $3 trillion, including the borrowing of funds to finance the wars.

The war in Iraq has been an enormous investment in every sense. Its conclusion should help open the gates not only to a stable Iraq, at least in the near future, but also to a sorely needed recovery of the U.S. economy.