U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly took a bundle of cheer to area troops stationed in Iraq last weekend.

He brought back hope that the war there is at long last starting to wind down.

Donnelly, D-2nd, who recounted his quick trip to Iraq in a Tuesday teleconference, said he delivered encouraging Christmas and holiday cards and letters from area schoolchildren to members of Company F of the 151st Infantry, an Indiana National Guard unit based in South Bend.

He and other members of Congress who made the trip also received a briefing from Gen. David Petraeus, military commander in Iraq, that led Donnelly to believe that “the end game is in sight.”

According to Donnelly, Petraeus hopes to reduce the number of troops to the pre-surge level of 130,000 by July. Donnelly said he would like the troop strength to be down to about 100,000 by the end of 2008, but acknowledged that Petraeus “says that would be aggressive.”

Still, Donnelly said he is hopeful that the American presence in Iraq can be reduced to the 40,000 to 45,000 range by the end of 2009.

Eventually, he’d like to see the American force reduced to an even smaller force that would serve in the background as opposed to being up front.

“The Iraqis want that, too,” Donnelly said.

The Granger Democrat said he had been looking for a chance to return to Iraq, which he visited last summer, to see if things had improved. The window opened on Friday and Donnelly and three other congressmen clambered aboard a military transport plane to make the trip.

Donnelly said the trip was led by U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., and also included Reps. Phil English, R-Pa., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

They landed in Iraq on Saturday afternoon and returned to Washington on Monday.

Donnelly said the troops he met with “do feel like we’re getting somewhere” in Iraq and that Petraeus also indicated that things are improving.

A meeting with State Department representatives in Iraq also was encouraging, said Donnelly, noting that progress is being made in restoring electrical power to pre-war levels as well as with other improvements needed for sustainable success. Donnelly said he found the area troops to be in good spirits.

He described a meeting with troops in one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces in which the soldiers gleefully took turns sitting on one of the former dictator’s thrones.

“I feel we’ve made progress and the end game is in sight,” Donnelly said. “we seem to be heading toward a place where the Iraqis can be self-sustaining.

“There’s an end in sight to our significant military presence there.”