Letters to the Editor. Iowa 2004 Presidential Watch: Republican conservative news on the Democrat caucus, primary candidates national campaigns.

IPW welcomes contributions to our online OP-ED Page. All submissions may be edited for length, accuracy and clarity. For verification purposes, letters and guest opinions to IPW must include your complete name, address and daytime telephone number; however only name and city/state will appear online. To submit by email, click here. Those wishing to submit by snail mail: Iowa Presidential Watch, P.O. Box 171, Webster City, IA 50595. -

With the recent announcement of Wesley Clark entering the run for President, many Democrats and especially the Media are a-buzz. But I was under Clark’s command from start to finish in Kosovo and I think I should let you know about a documented incident in which then-General Clark almost started WW III between the United States and Russia.

On June 14, 1999, Task Force Falcon was massed at Camp Able Sentry in Macedonia preparing to enter Serbia/Kosovo from the south. At the same time, a Russian motorized brigade was actually in Serbian -- being a Serbian ally -- preparing to enter Kosovo from the north. After a peace agreement had been arranged between NATO, Yugoslavia, and the UCK-Albanian Guerillas “peace keepers” were to enter the province to secure the territory. The Russian Brigade jumped the gun and rolled into Pristina a full 48 hours before they were authorized to, paraded through the streets of Pristina and eventually occupied Pristina International Airport.

General Wesley Clark, then the NATO Supreme Commander, became incensed and ordered my unit, Company A of 2nd Battalion 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division, to load up on Black Hawks. Along with 16 Apache helicopters with F-16 support; we were to re-seize Pristina International Airport and occupy it until the British Irish Guards, a mechanized brigade could secure the airfield. Why? Because the Russians were taking Clark's space in the headlines.

I was a squad leader assigned to the first Blackhawk in the lift. We had a battle plan and we were not going in as peacekeepers. We were fully camouflaged, carrying only ammunition and explosives, and our orders called for us to go in ‘Hot” to seize the airfield. The Apaches were supposed to take out any armored vehicles that challenged us. Loaded for bear, we spent the next 12 hours getting on the Blackhawks to attack the Pristina Airfield and then being ordered to stand down – we called it “get on the bird, get off the bird” and this went on and on. Being paratroopers, we were gung ho, ready to go kick the Russians’ asses.

What we later learned was that British Lieutenant General Sir Michael Jackson, the KFOR commander, was over-riding General Clark’s order. The ‘battle’ between Jackson and Clark went on and on until Jackson -- Clark’s subordinate -- very publicly announced he was not going to obey Clark’s orders. The quote was “I am not about to start WWIII for Wesley Clark because of a place like Kosovo”. All this was publicized in the media at the time, but I think everyone should take a closer look at Clark’s actions. After we eventually entered Kosovo, we found out that there were 20,000 Serbians at Pristina Airport, the entire field was mined and booby-trapped and if we had followed Clarke’s orders we would have been slaughtered.

Furthermore, we now know that less than 2,000 Albanians were actually killed in Kosovo, and the 15,000-foot bombing campaign -- which cost $50 billion dollars -- basically blew up combines and tractors. I saw a total of 20 destroyed Serbian vehicles the whole time I was in the country.

So, the question to be asked is: why is Clark a candidate for President? Incidentally, Bill Clinton forced him into retirement shortly after the air war by not nominating him for a second term as NATO Supreme Commander. I believe there is more going on here with Clark -- especially since I don’t know of another General Officer in the entire Military that would actually call themselves a Democrat or Clark supporter.

IPW NOTE: Steve Meyer is the author of the book “Rationally Right; An Explanation of the Conservative Paradigm,” and founder of the Robin Hood Republican Voter Group. Mr. Meyer will be speaking to the Students for Family Values at the University of Minnesota on October 22nd. The Students for Family Values group is the only conservative group at the U of Minnesota that receives a portion of the U's mandatory student fee used to support student organizations. Regarding Meyer's book, the group's president, Martin Andrade (and past vice-chair for Campus Republicans at the University of Minnesota), states:

"If I had to pick books to give to those wanting to know more about conservative philosophy, I’d give them Rationally Right (Meyer), Conscience of a Conservative (Goldwater) and Letters to a Young Conservative (D’Souza) in that order, with an honorable mention going to Parliament of Whores (P.J. O’Rourke).

Senators Jon Corzine of New Jersey, John Kerry of Massachusetts, Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia all have an estimated net worth in excess of $200,000,000.00. These multimillionaire senators also have in common a huge disdain for tax cuts and have voted to reduce President Bush’s proposed tax cut. There are other wealthy senators that also voted to reduce the tax cut. These four just happen to have hundreds of millions where many of the others have just millions and tens of millions. Tax cuts do not affect these rich senators because in our system income is taxed and wealth is not taxed.

The Robin Hood Republican^SMvoter group (RHR), in our never-ending battle against big government and in favor of the people, have come up with a metric called the wealth to tax ratio. The wealth to tax ratio is obtained by dividing a person’s or household’s net worth by the person’s or household’s taxes. Why create a new metric using wealth and taxes? A person or household with a low wealth to tax ratio is greatly affected by our tax system. If you have a high wealth to tax ratio the tax system won’t have as much of an affect on you.

Let’s use Senator Kohl as an example. The reason we chose Senator Kohl is because the Wisconsin Senator is the only wealthy senator for whom we have information on both net worth and tax liability. According to Forbes Magazine Senator Kohl’s net worth is around $250,000,000.00. Senator Kohl had income (assumed 2001 tax year) of $5,580,000.00 on which he paid $1,130,000 in state and federal taxes. Dividing $250,000,000 by $1,130,000 yields a wealth to tax ratio of 221.

We are estimating that most households in the United States have wealth to tax ratios of less than ten, with the average being in the range of two to three. What right do the rich senators have voting to keep our taxes high and our wealth to tax ratios low? Many poorer workers may not even be aware that they have high wealth to tax ratios because they pay little income tax. Most of the tax they pay is the cleverly disguised Social Security and Medicare Tax (See the book Rationally Right). The lower the wealth to tax ratio, the more painful the tax burden is to a person. We wish for all Americans to have high wealth to tax ratios, just like our wealthy senators.

Join with us in exposing the hypocrisy of these rich senators, along with most of their fellow Democratic and Moderate Republican Senators that do not want to see our wealth to tax ratios decreased. The senators claim they are against cutting taxes because the rich would benefit. How laughable! How can it get any better for these rich senators? If Senator Kohl’s investments go up by 1% his net worth increases by $2,500,000. Little, if any, of this $2,500,000 wealth increase is considered income so he owes no tax on this added wealth. Compare this tax situation to a second income of a two-income family whose marginal tax rate could easily be 40% or more (not including the employer’s portion of the Social Security and Medicare tax). This is a huge injustice!”