Bolton Out: Now What?

John Bolton

The Taliban are indefatigably committed to their jihad to regain control of all of Afghanistan and impose Sharia fully in that country.

This stance will not allow for the possibility of their coexisting peacefully with the Afghan government and remaining within its own sphere of influence while allowing that government to operate within its own domains. The jihad imperative is maximalist; the Qur’an calls upon Muslims to fight until “religion is all for Allah” (8:39).

If a jihad group enters into peace talks, it is not for the purpose of concluding a peace agreement in the Western sense, that is, with a view toward establishing the basis for an indefinite cessation of hostilities. On the contrary, it only views such talks as a means to attain its goals, and if the talks do not turn out to serve that purpose, they are to be ended.

What’s more, Muhammad’s breaking of a treaty he made with the pagan Quraysh, the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah when his forces had grown stronger and he no longer needed it became the paradigm for all treaty-making under Islamic law. If the Taliban do enter into an agreement with the United States, they will break it as soon as it has served the purpose they envision for it.

There is, however, a third alternative between withdrawing and entering into a spurious and fruitless peace agreement with the Taliban: leaving with no peace agreement, and working to contain the jihad threat from spreading beyond Afghanistan. But John Bolton is gone from the administration, the advocates of a peace agreement with the Taliban appear to be in the ascendancy, and no one seems to be considering that option.

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