Educatedfilm, you're totally missing the point. I can buy a barrel of water for cheaper than a barrel of oil! (this is a totally ridiculous discussion, and I don't even remember why we're arguing about it)
As for the rest - history goes in cycles and everything repeats itself. The advances of the ancient Greeks and Arabs were built upon by European scientists of the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution and then finally by the Americans in the early 1900s. Everyone's knowledge is built upon someone else's. So there's really no point in this discussion.
There's one thing that's not going to change. Everybody hates everybody else, and war, strife, hunger, injustice, and poverty will continue. All you people can go on talking about how much you hate the west and how it's our fault, but we can't do anything to help a corrupt people. We can only defend ourselves, our countries, and our way of life.
You can talk all day about the poor and the injustice of western society and the grievances of the arabs, but when Usama comes along he's gunna blow your head off like all the rest. So you might as well just appreciate what you have and leave the policy-making to those in power.