Alma 44 - pushing people to make covenants

Moroni's forces rout the Lamanite forces in Alma 43 and in Alma 44 he stops the fighting and gives the Lamanites an out. He says if they'll covenant to never fight the Nephites again, they can go in peace. The Lamanite leader says that he can't commit to never coming to fight the Nephites again (and also throws in a point that he doesn't believe God gave the Nephites the victory, disputing Moroni's statement that this was the case). 

Fighting continues, some die, others commit to never fight the Nephites again. I find 2 things very interesting about this:

a) Moroni believed it was helpful/useful to push people to covenant. I believe that is a wise move. 

b) The Lamanites tried to live up to this covenant (Lehonti and his army tried not to fight against the Nephites in Alma 47, only 2 years later). This is likely because they had made a covenant just before. However, Lehonti ended up getting close to someone who was sneaky, but definitely didn't care about his covenant and wanted him to break it. He ended up paying with his life.

If the Lamanites had kept their covenant, they would have lived a lot longer. They would have avoided war and had happier lives, presumably. It's worth making covenants. It's worth keeping them.