Supporting an illegitimate ruler

Isn't that what the West is doing by suddenly rushing to support Mahmoud Abbas' all-new government in the West Bank? I mean, I'm sure that the Palestinians need whatever help they can get but surely this contradicts the whole Iraq project. Remember all that neocon idealism about democracy in the Middle East and no more support for strongmen just because they might be expedient?

Bullshit.

Abbas is seen as marginally easier to deal with than Hamas, so he gets propped up with a government that the Palestinians never voted into office. Like I said before, if it puts bread on the table in Ramallah and elsewhere I'm sure that not too many in the West Bank are complaining, but make no mistake, the West has always, always preferred strongmen to democracy as an expedient for governing the parts of the developing world where it has strategic interests.