bitmask - yes, save for the natural oil & gas stashes, most of the Arabs are more hopeless than Africa. I believe their cultures and the religion of peace plays a big role in entrenching and sustaining the backwardness and dismal progress. I watched a video of the war in Yemen sometime - it was a comedy. The Saudis have these top-notch war machines from the US - yet the Houthis are at Boko Haram or Al Shaabab level technologically. The latter wear akalas and non-uniform fatigues to match. Despite this, the Houthis run circles around the Saudi army. A fighter emerges from the bush, runs to a moving tank, tosses a grenade into the cabin and retreats to the bush. Poof! the idiots don't even attempt to rescue themselves let alone repulse the fighters! The Saudi airforce is a separate joke altogether. The jokers have no abilities whatsoever to do targeted attacks on the Houthis. Instead the F22s or F-whatevers spit bombs indiscriminately at hospitals, centers and civilian facilities. The Iranians are way more competent in warfare. We saw them decapitate and uproot the Daesh from Falluja and Mosul within months as soon as the marines paved way. If only the Western navies did not man the waters to deny them a supply route Saudi Arabia would have been long routed out of Yemen.