August 30, 2026

Good morning! Today is Sunday, August 30th 2026, and this is The American Conservative's Morning Brief. Scott Greer argues the conservative intelligentsia's "common good" crusade collides with a Republican base that just wants to be left alone, embracing folk libertarianism over any elite-defined collective mission. Daniel Zoughbie urges Washington to abandon the Munich analogy and seek a Treaty of Ghent-style off-ramp from the six-month Iran war, as casualty counts climb and true costs may exceed a trillion dollars. Treasury launches "Operation Economic Outcast" against Banque Misr's UAE branches, while President Trump touts a Venezuelan oil deal he calls the biggest in world history, giving America equity in 65 billion barrels of reserves. and now for the details. We begin with the war in Iran, now grinding into its sixth month, and a call for Washington to look for an off-ramp before the costs climb further. Writing for The American Conservative, Daniel E. Zoughbie argues that the perpetual invocation of the Munich analogy — the warning against appeasement — has crowded out a more relevant lesson: the Versailles analogy. It was the punitive peace of 1919, Keynes warned, that wrecked Germany and cleared the way for Hitler. Zoughbie contends that maximum-pressure economics has a poor track record. Cutting off Imperial Japan helped bring on Pearl Harbor. Embargoing Cuba brought on the missile crisis. Sanctions on Iraq hollowed out its middle class and paved the way for a second war. He points to the War of 1812 and the Treaty of Ghent as a better model — an honest acknowledgment of stalemate, followed by reciprocal steps to restore the status quo. Under such a framework, Washington would pull back its strike groups, and Tehran would readmit international nuclear inspectors. Zoughbie cites former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who told him the Iran war ranks among the costliest foreign policy blunders in American history. Pentagon figures show 624 wounded service members, and while Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth puts the tab at $37.5 billion, Harvard economist Linda Bilmes estimates true short-term costs closer to $370 billion — with long-term costs likely pushing past a trillion. Zoughbie closes with John Quincy Adams's warning that America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. Staying with the Iran war, the Treasury Department on Friday opened a new front in the economic campaign against Tehran. Jude Russo reports for The American Conservative that the United States will cut the United Arab Emirates branches of Banque Misr — Egypt's second-largest bank — out of the dollar system as the opening move of what officials are calling "Operation Economic Outcast." The bank has thirty days before it loses correspondence rights with American financial institutions. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department had promised to sever every economic lifeline Tehran has left, and warned that Iran's enablers cannot continue to enjoy access to the U.S. dollar. Treasury alleges that between January 2024 and June of this year, Banque Misr's UAE arm processed roughly $1.8 billion for more than a hundred companies tied to Iranian shadow banking networks. Additional sanctions target the manager of Bank Melli's UAE branch and a Hong Kong trading house. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in an interview with the Iranian Student News Agency, conceded that the sanctions are biting, telling critics who claim otherwise that "common sense is a good thing." As of Friday's close, Brent crude sat at $89.37 a barrel, and AAA reported a national average of $4.08 for a gallon of regular gasoline. To our south, President Trump on Friday announced what he called, in his words, the biggest oil deal in world history — a public-private arrangement that he says will give the United States majority control over more than 65 billion barrels of proven Venezuelan oil reserves, at no cost to the American taxpayer. Jude Russo reports for The American Conservative that Trump credited Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio with brokering the deal, which he says more than doubles American oil reserves. According to Axios, the transaction will take the form of a partnership with American companies and the Venezuelan government, which still controls the country's nationalized oil industry. An American source described it this way: "It's not a purchase. They're giving us equity." Venezuela's Acting President Delcy Rodriguez — who took power after the American ouster of Nicolas Maduro in January — confirmed the agreement, and said it would generate $209 billion in tax revenue for Caracas. The final details of the transaction have yet to be announced, and Axios notes it is not clear the deal has been fully finalized. Those are today's highlights. For the full stories and more, visit theamericanconservative.com. Thank you for starting your morning with us.