It's been said that to whom much is given, much is expected. No nation in the history of man has been so blessed as America.

Our prosperity stems from previous generations' willingness to make the sacrifices necessary and our God-given rights of freedom and liberty. Through the 20th century and now the 21st century, the burden of preserving Western civilization has fallen on our shoulders.

That is part of the cost we must bear as the strongest nation on Earth. In previous years we led the fight and saved the world from the scourge of communism and fascism. Now the mantle has fallen on us to protect the world from the evils of terrorism.

Other nations, such as France, once shared in these duties, but because of internal rot and a general lack of national pride have become has-been nations.

On April 13, Rick Devore wrote a letter to the editor describing how America cannot defeat terrorism. There have been Rick Devores since the beginning of our nation.

If we had followed their advice in the 1770s, we still would be a colony of England. The South would have won the Civil War, Germany would still occupy France, and the Communists would rule the world.

Devore's particular brand of cowardice and defeatism only undermines the efforts of better men than himself. He states that most Americans want us to retreat from the war on terrorism. If that's true, then the majority of Americans are wrong, and that wouldn't be historically the first time.

One thing about cowards is that they believe everyone else thinks as they do.

This past March 17, I went to Washington as part of an anti-antiwar protest. The antiwar protesters had bragged how they were going to desecrate and spray-paint the war memorials, especially the Vietnam Wall. A couple of weeks previously, they had done that at the Capitol.

I was appointed to act as a marshal to help guard the World War II memorial from vandalism.

According to the Park Service Police, approximately 10,000 war protesters showed up, but 30,000 people, mostly veterans, showed up to oppose them.

While the war protesters, mostly college kids, ranted and raved and marched around under Communist and anarchist flags, there was no desecration or even flag-burning incidents. So much for the majority being antiwar.

While people like Rick Devore side with the enemy, the majority of Americans do want the war to be won and over with. Until the gloves come off and we fight the terrorists with the full might of the American military, it will drag on.

Devore mentions our casualty lists in this five-year war. There were more people killed in one day at Normandy than in this entire period in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I do not say this lightly; my son is on his fifth tour.

To cut and run from this fight to the death, as the Devores of our nation propose, is suicide. If the enemy won't quit, they need to be completely destroyed wherever they exist.

Sponsor nations, like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's friends in Syria, need to be punished so severely that they abandon their commitments to help the enemy.

Terrorism is a malignant disease that must be eradicated from the body of mankind. People like Devore only prolong the cure.

We have the means; we only need the will.

Gary Neely Renfrew