Why has the gunman above just killed the man lying on the ground? And why is he about to kill the man kneeling on the pavement? And why was another man, not shown, also executed? The answer, according to the Associated Press, which moved the photo, is that they were in a car carrying five persons employeed by the Independent Electoral Commission in Iraq. The photo, one of the most chilling to move over the wires in years, is of killings that took place Sunday, when 30 terrorists attacked the car with hand grenades and machine guns.

There has been much sneering about President Bush’s commitment to the principle that freedom is desired by all persons, even those in the Middle East. There has been much mocking of his wager that Iraqi soil is fertile ground for democracy, if only we can protect it. To those who sneer, we say, come, contemplate the picture above. This is what ordinary Iraqi people face as they sign up for the dream of democracy. And yet they do sign up. They work for the Independent Electoral Commission. They wait in line to join the police force. They work on American funded construction projects. They are a brave, inspiring people, under attack by nihilists of a type who have, in the long run, lost every war they’ve fought.

And Mr. Bush is right – one of the things the enemy is fighting against is democracy. Again, contemplate the photograph above. What is being attacked is not American oil interests or Israel or American imperialism or infidels but the idea that the Iraqi majority should be able to elect its own leaders rather than be subjected to the tyranny of a Baathist dictator. This idea is personified by Iraqi election workers.

The Baathist remnant in Iraq and its Syrian government allies are terrified of an Iraqi government emerging with a legitimate democratic mandate. For they know that such a government will mean the end for them. There can be little room for doubt about which side of this fight America and the rest of the West comes in on.