Some time ago I read an article by an Egyptian intellectual who pondered the question: although there are about a billion Muslims, and many of them use the conveniences of modern society, other than raw materials, why is it they produce nothing of value to the rest of the world? Why indeed?
When I was in Iraq it occurred to me they will let westerners drill a hole in the ground to get oil but you’d be hard-pressed to find a latrine at an IA forward base, unless, of course, it was dug by a westerner.