Masterpage and IF IE Conditional Statement

I am using a masterpage and I have an If IE conditional statemtn in it.  Unfortunately all the CSS files are loading underneath this statement and therefore the IE CSS fix is not working.
 
Here is my code:
 
<!--[if IE 9]> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="~/App_Themes/RSS/formatIE.css" runat="server"/> <![endif]--> </head>  
And here is the source when the page is loaded:
<!--[if IE 9]> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="App_Themes/RSS/formatIE.css" /> <![endif]--> <link href="App_Themes/RSS/Events.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /> </head>
How do I make my IE fixes appear UNDER the loaded theme CSS files?
THANKS!!!
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