What took so long?

Bush has just signed legislation that will allow the United States to impose sanctions against Sudan. Now they just have to follow through with it. The law also calls on the president to put pressure on other UN members to take a similar course of action.

There are concerns about whether sanctions could work because Russia and China have veto-power in the United Nations; and since they are criminal states who victimize their own citizens it would be rather hypocritical of them to impose sanctions just because of a little bit of genocide. But this is the perfect opportunity for the rest of the world to take a stand. Maybe the sanctions won't be effective as long as China continues to buy their oil. But maybe I would feel better living in a country that has a little less of the world's blood on its hands. Doesn't that count for something?

But maybe I'm taking the wrong approach here. Maybe we should be condemning the Americans. Are they allowed to make sanctions decisions without the approval of the U.N. or would they be doing the worst thing imaginable and "acting unilaterally"?