What about Iran? How long did it take Iran to get to where it is today? At what cost? are their people now suffering going to have a dash of missile for Dinner? Nope, they are in pain. Wasting precious resource on arms while your people suffer is a daft idea.
And it's not about matching the powers of the West, Iran and Libya poses a different scenario, flip it over and put Iran in libya, The US won't have issues decimating them. You are underestimating the kind of military power America has. If Iran is attacked, the whole region implodes, sure, but if US want to, they can, it will take only a few days to weeks to destroy all of Iran's military infrastructure. The chaos it would cause in the region is most likely the reason they won't, and also the impact that would have on the strait of Homuz or whatever it's called
Anyways, just my opinion, carry on. spend dinner money on bullets

kemicalreact:
Tell that to Iran. Do you think US would have hesitated in attacking Iran if it was like Libya? The goal is not to match their power, the goal is to make a war with you costly enough for them.

Libya was attacked by countries that are way more powerful than Libya itself can ever be, they could spend billions more, the result would have been the same.
Assad last this long because he had a strong country behind it, and that's Russia. A poor country can only arm up to defend against powers within it's own league, other than that, it's just a waste of money, spend that money on your infrastructure instead.
The billions needed would have to come from somewhere, even if they all sell their kidneys, still won't be enough , so why bother

kemicalreact:
Libya became a shithile cos they followed this route.

Well well, who dey ban me now, wetin i do .
Can't hold me down, you heard