On Thursday, President Obama “moved ever so slightly” on his position on July 2011 as a hard date for troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, says Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.), to National Review Online. “It seemed to signal a slight softening on that position. If that is the case, it would be very helpful.”

From Obama’s presser:

OBAMA: Here’s what we did not say last year. We did not say that starting July 2011, suddenly there would be no troops from the United States or allied countries in Afghanistan. We didn’t say we’d be switching off the lights and closing the door behind us. What we said is we’d begin a transition phase in which the Afghan government is taking on more and more responsibility . . . So we are in the midpoint of implementing the strategy that we came up with last year. We’ll do a review at the end of this year. General Petraeus understands that strategy because he helped shape it. And my expectation is that he will be outstanding in implementing it, and we will not miss a beat because of the change in command in the Afghan theater.

Kyl says that Gen. David Petraeus, the new commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, is the “right man for the job,” but that his success “may depend on whether the administration is flexible on that date.” It is “really essential,” Kyl says, that Obama “articulates a view based on what is happening on the ground,” and that others in his administration “pick up that theme.” Republicans, he adds, “will be critical, not from a political, but a policy perspective, as long as there is a hard date for the beginning of withdrawal. If the people in the region believe that, we’ve got a problem. If we base what happens next year around on-the-ground conditions, we’ve got a much better chance of success.”