It almost worked for Nixon.
However, it's likely that the administration won't give up. One possibility open to it is to revisit one of the darkest periods of the Vietnamese War: to overthrow our client (Ngo Dinh Diem was the "elected" President) in favor of another one who is more amenable to our wishes. There was talk, over a year ago, of replacing Maliki, but that was before he agreed to a unilateral extension of the UN mandate, despite a majority in the Iraqi parliament signing a statement rejecting the mandate's extension last year.
Now Maliki probably realizes his government wouldn't be much of a government if he agreed to the SOFA, especially since his major supporters in parliament and in the country would be opposed to it, and therefore opposed to him; he would be entirely dependent on US support to remain in power.
This story isn't over yet. The administration is not going to let a little thing like Iraqi opposition stop them from establishing a permanent imperial presence in Iraq, not when there is so much oil there, and oil is now selling for at least $140 a barrel.
So, watch to see what happens next in Iraqi politics. Don't be at all surprised if the present government is overturned, if the US uses its newfound alliances with Sunni groups to engineer an overthrow, either parliamentary or military. It's happened before, and could happen again.
In fact, I bring up this possibility because unless people talk about it and discuss it, and oppose it, it will be more likely to happen.
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