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Originally Posted by powerclown
In the video, there was mention by the weatherguy to Bush that the levees might be TOPPED, not BREACHED. He never mentioned to Bush that they might be breached. These are relevant technical terms when describing levee systems' behavior. "Topping" means some water spills in but the levee remains intact, "breaching" means a comprehensive failure of the levee. The distinction is critical.
Therefore, given Bush's use of the term "breach", I believe he acted in good faith and should not be held soley responsible for the Katrina effort.
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Wow. I guess it depends what the definition of is - er, topped - is , huh?
I mean, come on. Do you really think that Bush hung up the phone after that meeting, glanced at Cheney and said, "Whew - for a second there, I was worried he was going to say breached. But no, he said topped, which is an utterly different term that implies a completely different event. Thank goodness I'm intimately familiar with the technical meanings of those two words in the context of levee systems, because otherwise, boy howdy, I'd be nervous."
Realistically, while you are very minutely, technically correct, there is no way to honestly construe what meteorologist's statement as "the water may possibly top some of the levees, but not outright break them."
There is just no way that such microscopic parsing was occuring:
A) in the presentation of a worst-case scenario to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the President,
B) in anyone's mind during the meeting, or
C) during Bush's statement regarding whether or not anyone anticipated the breach of the levees.
Basically, just because the exact
word that the meteorologist used wasn't "breach," doesn't mean that Bush's statement was true. I just don't think your argument passes the sniff test.