Barack Obama Said American Troops Were "Just Air-Raiding Villages And Killing Civilians" In Afghanistan.

[couragehonorvalor]

Obama: "We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there." (Philip Elliott, "Obama Gets Warning From Friendly Voter," The Associated Press, 8/14/07)

Key portion of phrase: "... which is causing ..." (emphasis mine).

A verb has special forms to show that the action is continuing. Progressive forms are used to show that an action is continuing or progressing at the time indicated by a particular tense. The form of a verb that ends in ing is called the present participle.

"which is causing" (present progressive)

A long explanation to make this argument: Obama is stating that in his view we are doing this, and it is continuing to happen.

Obama is a constitutional law scholar, and thereby should be held accountable to the parsing of his words.

Palin stated in last night's debate that this should be grounds to disqualify Obama as Commander in Chief.

Indeed.