Then-chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix wrote: “…in March 2003 the policy of containment was abandoned in the case of Iraq and the policy of counter-proliferation was applied: a combined UN and IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] inspection force of fewer than 200 inspectors costing perhaps $80 million per year was pushed out and replaced by an invasion force of some 300,000 personnel costing approximately $80 billion per year. The experience showed what a muscular counter-proliferation operation can achieve in a very short time, but it also raised troubling questions.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Hans Blix, Disarming Iraq, Page 274