A lot of conservatives will think this is a bad idea, but there are actually some pluses to it:

"The United States will expand assistance to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to include about 8,500 members of his national security forces and possibly 1,000 Fatah fighters based in Jordan, U.S. documents show.

Providing non-lethal equipment and training to units of Abbas's National Security Forces, and possibly the Jordan-based Badr Brigade could increase Washington's role in the power struggle between Abbas's Fatah faction and the governing Hamas movement.

U.S. assistance has largely been limited until now to around 4,000 members of Abbas's presidential guard.

But documents obtained by Reuters on Saturday showed that the U.S. government's $86.4 million security assistance program could cover at least 13,500 troops loyal to Abbas."

..."These projects have been developed in coordination with the office of the PA president (Abbas), and the overall plan enjoys the support of the government of Israel," said the documents, marked "sensitive but unclassified."

On the one hand, don't delude yourself: we are giving money to terrorists here and although theoretically, Fatah is not committed to Israel's destruction while Hamas is, there isn't much practical difference in the way that these groups behave.

On the other hand, there is a civil war/gang fight going on in the Palestinian territories and since Hamas is stronger, by aiding Fatah, the Bush administration is increasing the body count, lengthening the fighting, and trying to pick a winner that they believe is easier to work with.

Is it possible that these troops could be used against Israel? Yes. But, hopefully, Israel will take minimal damage while thousands of Hamas members and supporters will end up dead as a result of US funding. That's likely why, "the overall plan enjoys the support of the government of Israel."

Now, would we be better off giving them nothing? Probably. I'm of the opinion that as long as a terrorist group runs the Palestinian territories, they don't deserve to get a dime of money from the US. But, if we are sending money in there, at least it's money that will lead to more dead terrorists.

Hat tip to Little Green Footballs for the story.