evidence: "In the past 18 months, the U.S. has not suffered a single combat casualty there. By the time we left office, the Afghan government and the Taliban each controlled their respective territories, neither was mounting major offensives, and America had only 2,500 U.S. troops in the country—the smallest military presence since the war began in 2001," Pence wrote. [...] Facts First: There is no legitimate argument that Afghanistan experienced anything resembling "stability" after the US deal with the Taliban. While Pence is correct that no more US troops were killed in combat after the deal, the war continued to rage, and large numbers of Afghan troops and civilians continued to be killed or injured. [...] Despite the Taliban’s continued attacks and failure to follow through on areas of the agreement, the US continued to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. On January 15, days before Biden would be inaugurated, Trump’s acting defense secretary Christopher Miller announced that US forces had reached the lowest levels in the country since the beginning of the war.