No Levee Levity (and how does this relate to Israel?)

In a story on how New Orleans is coping with Storm Rita and the possible threat of a resubmergement, I found this section where two qualified and, presumably, diploma-carrying engineers, disagreed:-

In the Lower Ninth Ward, where two gaping breaches in the Industrial Canal levee submerged and splintered one of the poorest sections of the city, four to eight inches of water began seeping back into some abandoned and destroyed neighborhoods by noon on Thursday. Small waterfalls of leakage could be seen several feet below the top of the repaired levee as wind pushed rising water from Lake Pontchartrain through the Industrial Canal.

This was to be expected, said Chad Rachel, a civil engineer with the corps, after an inspection of the repaired breaches. There did not appear to be any erosion of the compacted clay base of the patched dike, he said, adding that he felt certain the large, interlocking stones atop the base would be able to withstand the expected storm surge.

"We don't expect any problem with a catastrophic breach," Mr. Rachel said.

By dusk, however, water had continued to rise, and Maj. Barry Guidry of the Army offered a direr assessment after examining the leaking at the Industrial Canal. "The levee's going to cave in," Major Guidry said. "In the middle of the night, this thing is going to be gone."

Well, first off, I wish New Orleans success in its fight against the rising water although it seems to me that the whole system is built on materials that enable water to seep right through, but who am I to comprehend?

However, for Israel, there are two lessons.

One, will our "security barrier" stop terror? Is it high enough? Placed strategically enough? Or is it a security blanket with no real intrinsic worth except as a psychological sop, going back to my "King Kong Syndrome" theory?

Second, if these two engineers can be diametrically opposed to each other, what are we to do with army officers, intelligence officers, ministry of defense officials, former army officers now in government, etc., etc. and et al. who argue about how to end terror, how to negotiate, how to protect Israel, how much or less territory to surrender and yield, etc., etc. and et al.?

Could it be the one side really doesn't know what it is talking about?