Did the Oil-for-Food program accomplish its mission?
Yes. The mission of the Oil-for-Food program was to address the
humanitarian impact of sanctions on the Iraqs citizens, while
maintaining their efficacy, which kept the Hussein regime from
acquiring weapons of mass destruction. Under the program, enough
food was imported to feed all 27 million Iraqis and the average
daily caloric intake of the people of Iraq was increased 83
percent, from 1,200 kilocalories to 2,200 kilocalories per person
per day. In addition, malnutrition rates in 2002 in the central and
southern part of the country were half those in 1996 among children
under the age of five; in the three northern governorates, chronic
malnutrition decreased 56 percent. The program also contributed to
national vaccination campaigns that helped reduce child mortality
and eradicated polio in Iraq since May 29, 2003.
As usual, there was fraud everywhere that hampered the program.
Saddam used Oil for Food as a way to circumvent economic sanctions,
bring in enormous amounts of money and lavish that money on himself
and his cronies.
