The October 30 New York Times international page article by Sam Dagher dated from Baghdad declares:

"The Iraqi government demanded changes on Wednesday to the long-delayed security pact with the United States.  The amendments would ban American troops from using Iraqi territory to carry out attacks on other countries, further limit when the troops would have immunity from Iraqi laws and allow inspection of American arms shipments.

"The amendments come just days after the United States sent American commandos over the border into Syria in what was by far the boldest attack there by special operations forces in the five years since the United States invaded Iraq.  There have been increasing signs of discontent among powerful Iraqi political parties with the agreement, including some that had negated the draft pact."

Perhaps American negotiators are unaware of the fact that Baghdad had been attacked by the Roman Empire centuries before.  That illustrates the refusal of Baghdad to be overrun by the powerful Roman Empire and refusal to surrender.  They burned everything and the Romans fled back to Rome, defeated for the first time.