You're a cagey old b*gger and not at all stupid so I'm quite prepared to be enlightened (as long as you don't disagree with me).
My reading of the article is that the Arab World doesn't/didn't lack brains or resources but the accumulation of a few thousand years of a different sort of history from the West.
This we are told, and it seems a reasonable starting point to me,is the big problem. You could argue that idea point by point.
ps. I think the militaristic undertones, some might shy at, are merely to indicate that the Arabs who think they can mount a mother of all wars, at the drop of a political speech, are at a disadvantage here as every where else because of the last 2500 years etc.
