Trump crosses the Rubicon. ‘The die is cast.’

Alea Iacta Est

Julius Caesar, fresh from his victories in Gaul, led his legion back into Roman territory contrary to the Roman law dictating that no commander could lead armed troops into Rome without the Senate’s approval. Caesar did it anyway.

When Caesar’s horse stepped a forefoot into the Rubicon River, the northern border of Rome, one of his lieutenants is quoted by the historian Seutonius as saying, “Alea Iacta Est” — “The die is cast.”

Rome would never be the same again. The Roman Republic would erupt in civil war, and ultimately be replaced by the Roman Empire. Caesar would not live to see it. He was, instead, assassinated on the floor of the Senate for his hubris.

The long, slow decline of Rome would follow, and a cautionary tale against unchecked ambition would be chiseled in stone. The history of the Western world became neatly divided between before the Rubicon and after.

When President Trump bombed and invaded Venezuela, kidnapped the Venezuelan president and left Americans to “run” the country, all without the consent of Congress and in violation of our Constitution, he crossed his own Rubicon. The die has been cast, and nothing in America will ever be the same.

Make no mistake, President Maduro was a slimy bastard and Venezuela has been a screwed-up country for quite some time. But changing that situation was never the job of the United States, but rather that of the Venezuelan people.

I am reminded of Ed Abbey’s suggestion regarding uncontrolled immigration at our southern border. Abbey, the author of many left-leaning books on the environment, advised that every refugee from the southern hemisphere, who is escaping despotism in their own country, should be met at the border, given a machine gun and a week’s worth of food, and told to go back home and start their own goddam revolution.

Policing politics in other countries has never been the job of the United States, although we have seldom passed up a chance to do precisely that. Our misguided attempt to “run” South Viet Nam cost us nearly 60,000 American lives and almost tore our country apart. History repeats itself to our detriment.

What will be the eventual butcher’s bill in Venezuela?

Nobody is willing to count that cost, not even Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon who posted on X that the Venezuelan people “now have a chance to be free.” Everyone is too caught up in the machismo and patriotic fervor of the moment, waving flags and shouting “USA, USA.” After all, nothing says patriotism more than kicking the shit out of a third-rate country. Gordon’s recent expression of support and justification for Trump’s crossing of his own Rubicon made my skin crawl.

Every American soldier who bleeds if we get mired in Venezuela, will bleed directly onto Gordon’s hands, and on the hands of everyone who follows Trump across that fateful river.

And that is not to mention the damage done to the United States and our reputation as a beacon of hope in the world. We risk — if we are not already — being perceived as nothing more than a purveyor gunboat democracy.

What, too, of the damage to ourselves, as we cheer loudly for American imperialism instead of self-rule in the rest of the world, while we watch the sacred institutions of our Constitution sacrificed on the altar of poll numbers and deflection from the Epstein files?

Viewed in a certain light, the responsibility for the downfall of Rome should rest on the legion that followed him across the Rubicon. Had those troops simply said to themselves, “This is bullshit,” obeyed the law and stayed on their side of the river, Caesar would have bluffed and blustered and spouted off without anyone behind him to back him up. And the history of the world would be different.

That is the choice confronting us all. Do we follow Caesar, or do we obey the law? 

Perhaps the die is not yet cast.