Opinion - Georgie Anne Geyer

WASHINGTON -- If the Obama administration's new policy toward China, which is tiresomely called "strategic reassurance," sounds more than a little like an old married couple's muted anniversary wish, that may be because it is.

WASHINGTON -- It is not often in human history that a leader whose country has lost its position in the world because of his actions attends joyful events celebrating the loss. Much less common is it that he considers himself a hero for what he has done. Offhand, I cannot think of any such amazing -- indeed, astonishing -- time.

WASHINGTON -- As we looked at the TV and other press coverage of the terrible massacre at Fort Hood last week, we rather quickly learned a lot about American Muslims, our military and our citizens in general -- only it is not exactly what we would expect to learn.

WASHINGTON -- A new term is making the rounds in foreign policy circles in Washington these days. It is undeniably clumsy. The term is "the un-Vietnam," referring to a war that has been over for 34 years yet still comes back like an arrow gone wrong when we talk about Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON -- Twenty years ago, early in October, I found myself in East Berlin observing one of modern history's most incredible events.

WASHINGTON -- This fall, David Rohde, a young and intrepid journalist covering Afghanistan for The New York Times, told the dramatic story of his seven months in captivity with one of the most extreme Taliban militias -- from his capture in Afghanistan to months in miserable, gun-filled rooms in the Pakistani tribal areas.

WASHINGTON -- Little attention has been paid recently to Nicaragua. "Only right," you may well respond. "After all, that tiny, troubled country in Central America became only relatively important when the Marxist Sandinistas took over in 1979 -- becoming temporarily the 'second Cuba' in the hemisphere."