Gates Blindsided By Maliki’s Permanent-Occupation Balk

Looks like the Iraqi PM took the Defense Secretary by surprise when he opted, you know, against selling his country out entirely. From today’s presser:

Q: Mr. Secretary, Prime Minister Maliki today said negotiations over the SOFA have reached, quote-unquote, “a dead end.” What concessions can be made in the U.S. position to get these talks moving again in a significant, meaningful way?

SEC. GATES: I had not heard that and I’m not quite sure what the exact circumstances are. So I will have to, when I get home, find out what the status of those negotiations is, and whether there’s a difference between what’s actually going on in negotiations and the public posture. I just don’t know the answer at this point.

But it doesn’t seem from that exchange that the deal is dead.