Pray tell: how did starving Iraqis to the point where 500,000 children under the age of five alone die from malnutrition[0] punish the Iraqi government?

All it did was convert the secular military dictatorship into an extremist religious dictatorship and the effects of this punishment are still being felt today around the entire world[1].

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM0uvgHKZe8

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_campaign#Consequences