A Letter to General Clark

General Wes Clark

Wesley K. Clark & Associates

Via Email

General Clark,

Greetings from Sarajevo.

You might or might remember me and the Runners for Clark organization of twenty years ago, but, in any event, our one encounter in person was at your New Hampshire campaign headquarters in January of 2004. A poll confirming that you were surging in the race for the Democratic nomination had just come out, and you were riding high when you returned that afternoon from a campaign event to address a headquarters packed full of young supporters, many of whom, like myself, had just returned from knocking on doors in subzero weather (I recall standing on a table to hear you speak, that being the only free surface left in the room, and you shook my hand along with half of all others once you finished speaking). I also recall that, after the conclusion of the campaign a few months later, you kindly autographed a Runners for Clark racing bib I had mailed you (I believe that autographed bib is somewhere in a storage unit in Colorado, perhaps in the same box with my father’s bronze star earned in Vietnam).

General, I don’t know the extent to which you are aware that RFC wasn’t the end of the story, but merely the beginning of a new chapter. I had started Runners for Clark in September of 2003 and started volunteering directly for your campaign after attending one of the many Draft Wesley Clark Meetups being held in Manhattan. That Meetup (or two) was in turn after reading your Newsweek International interview a few weeks prior, and I was drawn to that grassroots movement due to its energy and the centrist nature of your candidacy (if anything, the late date of your switch from the GOP to the Democratic Party was a plus in my book). From that September onwards, I felt somewhat, and, eventually, increasingly uncomfortable with the partisan attitude of countless members of the Democratic Party I encountered and worked with, and, after you withdrew from the race, I decided to do something about my discomfort by rebranding Runners for Clark as “Unity Runners,” complete with a website beginning with “unityparty.” Needless to say, I don’t think everyone was surprised when I (with the cooperation of my late father as Unity Party member #2), launched the Unity Party of America on November 4, 2004. A few runs for office by yours truly later, and the Unity Party now has members in 46 states, plus official recognition at the state level in more than one of those.

General, allow me to get to the point. A point within the point I’ll be making with this letter is that indeed I am writing to you from the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country which you know only too well, and, well, could use a little more unity (Unity?). Partly in search of a Blue Ocean as in the Blue Ocean Strategy (why fight the R&D sharks in waters already red with blood when there’s a wide world of water out here open to hearing about the latest America has to offer?), I set up a few web pages (in German) for the Unity Party of Germany and sent out a press release (the party’s founding constitution is being written in original German by a German-born American who spent 44 years in the States, so it’s going to be a bit before the next press release is sent out). The UPG has already received a few sizable donations (including from the US and other parts of the Americas; yes that’s legal under German law) and Germans have started to show up at our monthly Forward Friday Google Meet confabs (you’re always welcome).

I then asked myself why stop at Germany?, I happen to be here in Sarajevo (partly) to catch the film festival starting this weekend (there’s a Unity Party tie-in there as well), and, the more research I conduct regarding the history and current status of Bosnia, the more sense it makes for the Unity Party to stake a claim in the local politics here. Next first step will be to reach out to a certain gentleman in these parts who happens to be German (another opportunity for yours truly to practice his target language) and who happens to call all the shots in this country, and inform him of the Unity Party’s plans.

General, I don’t know if you’d be at all interested in showing your support, for the Unity Party in the US or anywhere else, but you might recall another general who was smart enough to win an American Civil War. General Grant’s Second Inaugural Address, little remarked upon at its 1873 delivery and ever since, got me thinking about the potential of what I’ve come to call Unitism. The same man who simply saw what needed to be done to win that war (attack Lee to destroy his army), also simply saw what needed to be done to bring peace to a world that had seen its first modern trench warfare (courtesy Grant’s own actions) at Petersburg, Virginia just a few years before: “Rather do I believe that our Great Maker is preparing the world, in His own good time, to become one nation, speaking one language, and when armies and navies will be no longer required.”

Also, General, on a lighter note, you should know that you and I are depicted in the Red World Mod of the Hearts of Iron IV video game. I can’t keep track of all the game updates (and fortunately development of that mod has been halted), but, at least initially, as I saw in an early YouTube video with 29,000-and-counting views (one of many), I was portrayed as leader of (what remains of) the Free World, with you as part of my government. Here’s hoping life doesn’t circle back to imitating art bearing a tenuous resemblance to reality (you and the Clintons have the ability to throw me out, including by means of a coup).

The sun is finally rising over Mount Trebević (the 1992 Bosnian lily flag that triggered a retaliatory response involving the Republika Srpska flag isn’t visible yet), so I should get on to the other pressing business of the day, and I promised a young lady at the front desk downstairs that I would learn 10 words of Bosnian before I leave (four more to go).

Forward UP,

Bill Hammons

Co-Founder, Unity Party of America

Chairman, United National Committee

Senior Texas Representative, United National Committee

2024 Unity Party Nominee for President of the United States

www.unitypartyamerica.us