The sanctions were not without effect. The UN Oil-for-Food program provides a whopping $190 to each Iraqi per year. The middle class in the country is gone — only Hussein and his inner circle and the impoverished masses remain. Diseases eradicated in the 80s have returned, and in many cases — due to the sanctions — the medications needed to treat the diseases are not available. UNICEF, a part of the United Nations, estimated that between 1991 and 1998 over a million Iraqis died from malnutrition and disease, due in large part to the UN implemented sanctions and the US and British bombings that have decimated the Iraqi water supply and overall infrastructure. Half of those dead Iraqis were children under five.

(Source: BBC News, 4/24/02)