After installing friendly leaders in Iran and Guatemala, the United States lost interest in promoting democracy in either country.

What the United States wanted in Guatemala - and in Iran, where the C.I.A. also deposed a government in the early 1950s - was pro-American stability.

No step the United States could take anywhere in the world would bring strategic benefits as great as detente with Iran.

Any country that grants asylum to Snowden risks retaliation from the United States, including diplomatic isolation and costly trade sanctions. Several don't seem to care.

Fundamentalists are not friends of democracy. And that includes your fundamentalists in the United States.

There is very little hope that the United States or anyone else can do much to stabilize Iraq, Libya, Syria or Egypt. Stabilizing Iran, and bringing it back into the family of nations, is much more possible. That would be a 'win' for both sides.