Palin and "our neighboring country of Afghanistan"--a real gaffe?

Some Internet buzz started up over a report that VP candidate Sarah Palin spoke in a way that suggested that Afghanistan neighbors the United States.

The reported all seems to stem from a blog account at Reuters--from one Jason Szep, who drew my attention earlier today by inserting Obama talking points into a news story about another speech by Palin.

Here's the most relevant portion of Szep's blog entry at Reuters:

Three days after a mostly gaffe-free debate performance, the Alaska governor fumbled during a speech in which she praised U.S. soldiers for “fighting terrorism and protecting us and our democratic values”.

“They are also building schools for the Afghan children so that there is hope and opportunity in our neighboring country of Afghanistan,” she told several hundred supporters at a fundraising event in San Francisco.

Experience has taught me to regard isolated quotations with suspicion, as well as partial quotations. Journalists often do a poor job of keeping quotations in context. As such, both of Szep's paragraphs invite closer scrutiny. What did Palin actually say in the broader context? Was there mention, even implicitly, of Iraq, Iran, or Pakistan?

I've had no luck through this point of locating either a video or a transcript of the San Francisco speech by Palin. As it would be difficult to locate any person in the United States who believes that Afghanistan borders the United States and also difficult to imagine from the context provided how Palin could make such an apparent misstatement, it is appropriate to regard Szep's account with suspicion until more information comes to light.