The Fox report below suggests that Bolton opposed withdrawing troops from Afghanistan and Syria. But the Washington Post said several days ago that Bolton opposed the peace talks with the Taliban:
Competing versions of what led to the cancellation of the meeting and, at least temporarily, any further U.S.-Taliban negotiations, exposed internal administration tensions that have flared as a deal seemed near in recent weeks.
Those tensions have pitted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whose chief negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, said a week ago that agreement “in principle” had been reached after 10 months of talks with the militants, and Trump national security adviser John Bolton, who opposed the talks.
Zalmay Khalilzad is an old Bush administration retread who is to a tremendous degree responsible for our being bogged down in the endless quagmire in Afghanistan. Between withdrawing and entering into a spurious and fruitless peace agreement with the Taliban, there is a third alternative: leaving with no peace agreement, which will never be honored by the Taliban anyway, and working to contain the jihad threat from spreading beyond Afghanistan. But no one seems to be considering that.
“Trump ousts National Security Adviser John Bolton, says they ‘disagreed strongly’ on policy,” by Brooke Singman, Fox News, September 10, 2019:
President Trump announced Tuesday that he has fired National Security Adviser John Bolton, saying he “disagreed strongly” with his suggestions on a range of issues.
“I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House,” Trump tweeted.
“I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning,” he continued. “I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week.”
While Bolton swiftly challenged Trump’s version of events — saying he offered to resign — the two have had well-known disagreements on a range of hot-button national security issues, perhaps most significantly on plans for a troop drawdown in Afghanistan.
Bolton’s removal comes after the hawkish adviser was reportedly sidelined from high-level discussions about military involvement in Afghanistan, after opposing diplomatic efforts in the region.
“Simply put, many of Bolton’s policy priorities did not align with POTUS,” a White House official told Fox News on Tuesday.
While Trump announced a 4,000-troop increase in 2017 as part of an effort to break the stalemate in the country, he has been moving toward agreeing to a phased withdrawal of troops. Some 14,000 U.S. troops have remained in Afghanistan, advising and assisting Afghan forces and conducting counterterrorism operations.
Inside the administration, Bolton also advocated caution on Trump’s strategy with North Korea and against Trump’s decision last year to pull U.S. troops out of Syria. Bolton also led a quiet effort inside the administration and with allies abroad to convince the president to keep U.S. forces in Syria to counter ISIS and Iranian influence in the region….
Bolton fired back Tuesday, tweeting moments after the president’s announcement that he offered his resignation on Monday evening, saying it was not immediately accepted by Trump.
“I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, ‘Let’s talk about it tomorrow,’ Bolton tweeted.
Bolton also told Fox News on Tuesday that he and the president were discussing Afghanistan on Monday evening, when he offered to resign.
“I offered to resign last night,” he told Fox News in a text message. “There was no request for a resignation.”
A source also told Fox News that Bolton sent his resignation letter late Tuesday morning, after which Trump tweeted on Bolton’s removal…