Some thought it curious that President Bush used his moment before the United Nations the other day to talk about Burma rather than Iran. Just hours later, though, we are witnessing in Rangoon what may go down in history as another 1956 Budapest, another 1989 Beijing — or, for that matter, another 1988 Rangoon, when thousands of Burmese were killed and maimed by their own armies for the crime of yearning to breathe free.

What the ruling generals of Myanmar, as they call the country, have on their hands is the most serious popular challenge to their oppressive rule in nearly 20 years — inflamed tens of thousands of brave Burmese, rising up in solidarity with their revered Buddhist monks, who have been beaten and shot and dragged away. The world must back these brave souls.

Bush made clear where the U.S. stands, urging global sanctions to dissuade the junta from unleashing a bloodbath and to prod the military into ceding power to a democratically elected civilian government. And Thursday, he did what the United States could by slapping Burma's leaders with sanctions of its own.

Way back in 1990, the Burmese went to the polls and chose Aung San Suu Kyi as prime minister, only to see her placed under house arrest for most of the time since. She earned the Nobel Peace Prize the hard way.

Hoping to ease the crisis, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon dispatched an envoy to talk to the generals — but it's China that holds sway over Burma's fate. The Chinese are both the regional power and the junta's most important trading partner and arms supplier. But the Chinese cold-bloodedly turned thumbs down on Security Council action and found it useful only to urge all parties to "maintain restraint."

Well, they had to say something. With all the world appalled by the horrors unfolding in Burma — at a time when the Chinese are preparing to host the Olympics — silence was not an option. But urging the Burmese junta to ease up on the brutal crackdowns was not unlike, say, the senior al-Qaida leadership privately counseling Abu Musab al-Zarqawi not to behead quite so many innocents because it's bad for business.

The world is watching in fear that blood will run in the streets of Rangoon and on the road to Mandalay. Nations across the globe are isolating the Burmese government with vows that individuals will be held to account for bloody acts of repression. For it is clear democracy will surely flower there — unless the people are crushed. May God be with them.