In the mind of House Intel Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI), the United States’ war in Afghanistan didn’t really start in 2001, but began after President Barack Obama’s ordered surge in 2009.

In an interview with The Atlantic published Monday evening, Rogers expressed his frustration over the U.S. timetable to withdraw all 23,000 surge troops from Afghanistan by September and all troops from the country in 2014.

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“We were winning on the ground,” Rogers said. “I was one of the few who came out in favor of the president’s surge. Yes, people say we’ve been there for 10 years, but it’s really been only since 2009. The surge is the real date.”

Rogers’ comments are likely to offend the families of the soldiers killed in Afghanistan before Obama announced the surge in December 2009. More than 900 U.S. soldiers were killed in Afghanistan prior to that announcement.