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Obama: Change healthcare now

WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Monday repeated his call on Congress to enact U.S. healthcare reform, saying if nothing happens now, nothing will change.

"Now, we've talked this problem to death year after year, but unless we act and act now, none of this will change," Obama said after a healthcare roundtable with health industry practitioners and administrators at Children's National Medical Center in Washington.

Changing the U.S. healthcare system will be hard, "but we're a country that chooses the harder right over the easier wrong," Obama said. "That's what we have to do this time. ... Let's pass reform by the end of this year."

The president said roundtable participants "spoke about some of the strains on our healthcare system and some of the strains our healthcare system places on parents with sick children."

Yet, even as families are "battered by spiraling healthcare costs, health insurance companies and their executives have reaped windfall profits from a broken system," Obama said.

The reforms his administration seeks would enhance competition, choice and savings, Obama said, as well as provide stability and security to U.S. families and businesses.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Obama's plan "prescribes short-term pain relief" instead addressing long-term reform.

"The Democrat plan does not contain costs," Steele said during a news conference Monday at the National Press Club in Washington. "It shifts them to the taxpayer, to our children and to future generations that will have to cope with this crushing debt by implementing huge premium subsidies and establishing a government-controlled healthcare plan."

Iraq, Afghanistan troop deaths near 5,000

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del., July 20 (UPI) -- The United States is approaching a combined 5,000 military deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq, military statistics indicate.

As of Friday, 4,996 service personnel had died in Iraq while 668 had been killed in Afghanistan, USA Today reported Monday.

All transfers of bodies from the two combat zones are handled at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where, since April, media outlets have been able to cover the proceedings, the newspaper said. In addition, the government also began to pay relatives' travel expenses to witness the arrivals.

Beau Beck told USA Today he was glad to be at the air base when the remains of his half-brother, Aaron Fairbairn, were returned with those of another soldier.

"There was this overwhelming sense of honor and respect," Beck said. "You didn't have to know those two kids on the flight line to feel that," Beck says.

During the Persian Gulf War, President George H.W. Bush's administration barred media coverage of returning casualties, in the interest of family privacy, and that policy was extended into the Iraq war. In 2004, Vice President Joe Biden, then a U.S. senator from Delaware, said the fallen "are essentially snuck back into the country under the cover of night, so no one can see that their casket has arrived."

The Obama administration this year re-opened the arrivals to journalists, provided families approve.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he was concerned that the media coverage may make families feel compelled to travel to the base, posing a possible financial hardship. The Pentagon decided to pay and help arrange travel, food and lodging for up to three people per family.

U.S. Army to get temporary troop boost

WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- The number of active-duty U.S. Army soldiers will increase temporarily by 22,000 to help eliminate stress, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday.

The additional troops will increase the current authorized permanent end strength from 547,000 to 569,000, Gates said during a news briefing.

"The Army has reached a point of diminishing returns in its multi-year program to reduce the size of its training and support tail," Gates said. "The cumulative effect of these factors is that the Army faces a period where its ability to continue to deploy combat units at acceptable fill rates is at risk."

Based on existing deployment estimates, he said, the challenge would peak during the coming year and wan during the next three years.

"For these reasons, I have authorized the Army to temporarily increase its personnel strength by up to 22,000 troops for a period of three fiscal years," he said.

The additional forces will help ensure that deployed units "are properly manned and not to create new combat formations," he said.

The Pentagon won't seek additional funds for either fiscal year 2009 or 2010, Gates said.

"I'm convinced that this is an important and necessary step to ensure that we continue to properly support the needs of our commanders in the field while providing relief for our current force and their families," he said.

Navy Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the temporary increase would help the Pentagon "get a better handle on dwell time and boost the number of people we can deploy with the capabilities our commanders most need. ... It's not just about relief. It's about renewing our efforts to fight these two wars."

Bombings kill 5 Iraqi security personnel

BAGHDAD, July 20 (UPI) -- Bombings and gunfire attacks across Iraq left at least 13 people dead, including 10 police officers, government and police officials said.

The New York Times reported a police official said five Iraqi police officers and two civilians were slain in six attacks by gunmen in Mosul.

An Information Ministry official said a suicide attack in Ramadi killed four police officers and the bomber, CNN reported. Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, is about 70 miles west of Baghdad.

In Taji, a bomb attached to a vehicle used by the facility protection services killed an officer attached to the unit and wounded two others, the ministry said. Taji is about 12 miles north of Baghdad.

The bombing in Ramadi was the latest attack in Anbar province, CNN said. On Friday and Saturday, attacks left at least six people dead and 20 wounded.

Officials said a U.S. convoy Sunday was hit by a bomb at Thi-Qar province, the Kuwait News Agency KUNA reported. No casualties were reported.

Iraqi police also said officials arrested three people suspected of involvement in missile attacks on Iraqi military camps in Al-Amara province, KUNA reported.

A police official in Mosul said gunmen killed a traffic police officer and a civilian bystander in a western neighborhood, and four other police officers died in four other attacks in the city. In the sixth incident, a woman was shot as she stepped out of her house in an eastern Mosul neighborhood. Her father was wounded.

The rash of shootings came a day after Iraqi forces cordoned off a section of the city's east side to conduct house-to-house searches for insurgents, the province's governor said.

India, U.S. reach defense agreement

NEW DELHI, July 20 (UPI) -- India and the United States plan to move forward on monitoring the end-use of military arms, clearing the way for closer defense ties, the countries said.

The Times of India Monday also reported Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will travel to Washington Nov. 24, marking his first U.S. visit since President Barack Obama took office in January.

India also plans to locate two nuclear parks for U.S. companies, the newspaper said. India and the United States signed a civilian nuclear deal last year, allowing for such agreements.

U.S. Secretary of State Clinton made the announcement about end-use weapons monitoring at the conclusion of a day of meetings with Singh and External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna. At a joint news conference with Krishna, she said the strategic dialogue between the two nations will be based on cooperation.

"We share a common trait by rolling up our sleeves and getting things done," Clinton said. "We have shown progress also by finalizing important agreements today including the end-user agreement that will pave the way for greater defense cooperation between our countries and technology safeguards agreement."

Krishna said the end-use monitoring arrangements will be referred to in letters of acceptance for arms and technologies sales.

Pakistan, on which the United States is relying in the fight against terrorism, also was expected to figure in Clinton's talks. India expects the United States to use its power to control what it says is cross-border terrorism from Pakistan, the newspaper said.

India also blames last November's Mumbai attacks that killed more than 160 people on terrorist groups based in Pakistan.

On climate change, Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said Sunday his government cannot accept carbon emissions cuts that would impede the country's economic growth. Clinton tried to convince her hosts the United States would not impose any such conditions.

During her Sunday tour of a Green Center in Gurgaon near New Delhi, Clinton lauded India's efforts to reduce carbon emissions, CNN reported.