On the bureau's perceived lack of clarity in foreign policy, this is nothing new. This didn't happen on January 23, 2006. Governments of Canada have been operating this way forever and doing the best we can, making sure, to the best of our ability, that we equip the folks with the best stuff.
I would submit that our foreign policy is laid out on military affairs, Arctic sovereignty, participation in NORAD and NATO, and participation in the United Nations. Under those agreements we have historically entered into conflicts, some of which we couldn't have predicted--Kosovo, the first Gulf War, and now Afghanistan, and so on.
So I don't think it's accurate to say there is no analysis and no foreign policy out there; that we have no idea, we're just bumbling along into the future, buying a piece of kit because it's sexy and expensive, and let's find something to do with it. I think that's a gross over-simplification of the process here.
Would you agree?