U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) praised President Barack Obama’s announcement Friday that all U.S. troops will return home from Iraq by the end of December, effectively ending the nearly nine-year war.

“While I believe that we must still monitor the number and activities of private contractors that the U.S. will maintain in Iraq, I am grateful that members of our armed forces will be home for the holidays and we will not have to endure another year of military action in Iraq,” Schakowsky wrote in a statement Friday.

Schakowsky, a founding member of the Out of Iraq Congressional Caucus, added she has repeatedly opposed President George W. Bush’s involvement of the country in an “unnecessary, unfunded war.”

“To date, the war in Iraq has also cost the American people more than $1 trillion and untold burdens on military families,” Schakowsky wrote.

Obama’s decision comes in the wake of his pledge to bring all troops home by the end of 2011, a commitment he said dates back to his inauguration.

More than 100,000 troops have been withdrawn thus far, stated a White House news release Friday.

“As we welcome home our newest veterans, we’ll enlist their talents in meeting our greatest challenges as a nation – restoring our economic strength at home,” the release stated. “Because after a decade of war, the nation that we need to build is our own.”