The Problems:

• The Cost to Riverside County
  
  $2.7 Billion!
  
  For $2.7 billion, Riverside County could have provided 1,122,393 people with health care for ne year, 4,858,815 homes with renewable electricity for one year, or 409,827 scholarships for university students for one year.

• The Cost to America
  
  More than $512 billion, or $341.1 million per day. That's $4,681 per household
  
  Over 4,000 U.S. soldiers killed and more than 60,000 wounded.
  
  The combined costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could total $2.4 trillion through the next decade, or nearly $8,000 per man, woman, and child in this country. Iraq accounts for about 80 percent of that total.

• The Cost to Iraq
  
  An estimated 665,000 deaths occurred between March 2003 and June 2006.
  
  Over 4 million Iraqis have been displaced, about 14% of the total national population.
  
  There is not a single published mortality statistic which shows that the well-being of the Iraqi people has improved since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

• Damaging to Long-Term American Interests
  
  Not only is this war a drain on our economy, it has proved to be politically, militarily, and morally ruinous for our country. It has destroyed the goodwill of the world we had following 9-11.
  
  The repeated and lengthy deployments are severely stressing our military, both in terms of manpower and infrastructure. Estimates of as much as 40 percent of the equipment of the Army and Marine Corps are either in Iraq and Afghanistan, or being repaired. If we encounter a genuine crisis in another part of the world, one requiring our involvement, we will be ill-prepared to engage.

Bill Hedrick`s Solutions:

Withdraw Troops: I will work to quickly withdraw our troops from this quagmire. Our fighting men and women have performed admirably in a tremendously challenging environment, and the U.S. military has already achieved its originally stated goal - - defeating Saddam's Army. We verified long ago there were no weapons of mass destruction. It`s time for a change!

Iraqis Must Assume Responsibility: The considerable problems remaining in Iraq will not improve until the Iraqis assume responsibility for their own future, and that will not happen as long as we are their crutch. It`s time for a change!

Secure America: Instead of occupying Iraq, I will insist that we put our resources back into fighting Al-Qaeda and other terrorists who directly threaten our country. Congress has the power, and must exercise that power, to end this ruinous war by refusing to fund it. It`s time for a change!