Obama to address veterans on Iran, care scandals

US President Barack Obama will take his Iran pitch to a gathering of 12,000 veterans Tuesday and argue progress is being made in righting "systemic" problems in health services for the military.

Obama is traveling to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to address a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars group, which boasts 1.9 million members.

In addition to announcing measures designed to curb predatory lending targeting the military, Obama "will be speaking about our foreign policy, including Iran," said White House advisor Jeff Zients.

Obama has framed the recent nuclear deal as a choice between diplomacy and war.

While campaigning for the presidency in 2008, Obama told a battle-weary nation he would end the long and bloody conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now he will be hoping that those who know war best are receptive to the case that another war, this time with Iran, should be avoided at all costs.

Obama is also expected to address the recent killing of five US troops in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Four US marines and a sailor were killed after 24-year-old Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez opened fire on two military centers.

- Veterans in crisis -

poses about overcrowding and poor standards in military hospitals, the scandal cost Obama's aide and fellow Hawaiian Eric Shinseki his job as secretary of the agency.

Former army officer and Procter & Gamble chief executive Robert McDonald replaced Shinseki after receiving unanimous approval from the Senate.

But the VA was recently rocked again with news that it faces a massive budget shortfall.

In Pittsburg, Obama will also address "a range of policies and initiatives we're taking as an administration to support our veterans, our active duty military and their families," said Zients.

Chief among them are new rules to protect service members from lenders who charge exorbitant interest rates, sometimes as high as 700 percent.

The administration will close loopholes that means some loans are not subject to rules on "consumer credit."

Lenders target military bases "disproportionately," according to officials.

Many of the companies that market to the military use "patriotic-sounding names and the American flag on their websites," said Holly Petraeus of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

"The way I see it, when I drive down the strip outside a military installation and see 20 fast cash lenders in less than four miles, that's not a convenience, that's a problem," she said.

Petraeus is also the wife of former CIA director David Petraeus, who also headed US Central Command and was a military commander in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The White House says military service members are twice as likely to be involved with payday lenders as the general public.