As the biggest Schofield deployment to Iraq draws to a close, the Hawai'i-based commander of 23,000 soldiers in northern Iraq said he couldn't be prouder of the effort made by 7,000 Isle soldiers, as well as troops from a number of other units, while the Iraqi government itself still has a long way to go.

"The soldiers have just been absolutely magnificent," Maj. Gen. Benjamin "Randy" Mixon said by phone today from Forward Operating Base Speicher near Tikrit.

"I'm just amazed every day I go out with these soldiers by what they have accomplished. They have done everything that the nation has asked them to do and then some."

Between 1,000 and 1,400 Schofield soldiers have returned home, with the pace of redeployment now picking up, and Mixon said he and his 25th Infantry Division staff will be among the last to arrive back in Hawai'i by the end of this month.

Some of that effort over the past 14 months came with a fight, and 41 Hawai'i soldiers gave their lives in Iraq. The task force as a whole experienced 195 deaths.

In four major operations, 708 enemy fighters were killed, according to Schofield officials.

After four and a half years of fighting in Iraq, Mixon, who also commands the 25th Infantry Division in Hawai'i, said the Iraqi Army has made progress, and "I am optimistic, although cautiously so, that we'll continue to make progress."

The assessment comes as the U.S. House yesterday passed a bill co-authored by U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, that calls for the Bush administration to present to Congress plans for the withdrawal of combat forces in the unpopular war.

The bill does not include a withdrawal requirement.

Mixon said he believes the U.S. troop total, which recently peaked at about 172,000 and soon will return to 162,000, will have to be drawn down next year beyond the departure of 30,000 troops who were "surged" to Iraq, because of the strain on the military.

"We've got to take a look at the multiple rotations that we're requiring of our great soldiers and Marines in particular, but really the whole force," Mixon said. "We've got people that are now in their second and third rotation (to Iraq)."

Deployment adjustments will have to be made, Mixon said.

"We're going to have to increase the time people spend back home and reduce the amount of force over here — that's just the strategic reality."

Mixon also expressed frustration with the Baghdad government, which failed to meet some important benchmarks as a result of the improved security environment that the surge was intended to bring.

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Mixon said Iraq's central government was moving too slowly to ensure that its security forces are properly led, supplied and equipped.

"I have not seen any improvement, really, in the year I've been here in that regard," Mixon said at the time. Today, he said he's seen "minimal improvement."

Mixon also said Schofield's Stryker brigade, which is in California and has finished up nearly two months of training in preparation to go to Iraq next month, most likely will be operating in the area of Taji, about 12 miles north of Baghdad, and into the western desert.

"This is a support zone for the enemy," Mixon said.

A decision still has to be made whether the 4,000-soldier Stryker brigade, which has about 328 armored Stryker vehicles, will be part of Multinational Division-Baghdad, or will be part of Multinational Division-North, which covers the region generally north of the capital.