'And compare this "The basic Humvee wasn't intended to be an armored vehicle because, when it was designed over 20 years ago, they never thought it'd be used in conditions like we're seeing in Iraq. " '

The Humvee is a replacement for the Jeep. It was not intended to replace armored vehicles. The tradition of the Jeep is it's been used for a variety of tasks- moving troops & supplies, removing injuried troops, scout recon, towing stuff, etc. Having added armor on humvees is one more adaption to a multipe purpose vehicle- the replacement for the horse as it was used in warfare.

'with this : "After Mogadishu, after Grozny, after Afghanistan, after Belfast, after years of intifada already, and after nearly a year of our own hard experience here, and after the Humvee’s been in the inventory for nearly 20 years, and the deuce and half truck at least since Vietnam, it’s inconceivable to me that we’re still trying to figure out how to do this. " '
You missed the beginning sentence of this paragraph: "After all, urban counterinsurgencies are nothing new."

He talking about how best to run a counterinsurgency- and which having the right [and new] equipment is one aspect. His comments are that after decades of time, the brass seem to lack the knowhow and correct technology to address this rather common problem. He apparently *just can't believe* how stupid a bureaucracy can be. But I would say that in comparison to other bureaucracies the Miltary has seen some improvement and is better that most bureaucracies of it's size- and considering the restraints placed on it {e.g. Congressional funding}. [Though there are vast areas in which could get improvement in regards to logistics- most of this being rather mundane things such how to best to ship supplies.].