[faithinacure]

Kmar:
The United States has had a trade deficit with China for many years, because we import much more of their products than they do ours. Hence, they are cash-rich and we owe a large debt to them. So we have asked to borrow money from China to fund the Iraq war with the expectation they will get a high revenue on their loan to us probably mostly through oil revenues and contracts for rebuilding the damaged country. That was the expectation. But, now this country learned the war was a big mistake and we own China all this money. But the global economic downturn affected everyone, including China. When there's a trade deficit, there's a disproportionate flow of money from one county to the other, so one country becomes cash-rich, while the other becomes cash-poor, so they borrow more. It's kind of a cycle. So now we still have to pay the debt. The trade deficit still exists. This is my understanding of it.
Hope this helps,
Faithxoxoxo