Obama is back in Washington from vacation to address Iraq, Ferguson

(Image credit: Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

President Obama flew back to Washington, D.C., Sunday night for Monday meetings on the situations in Iraq and Ferguson, Missouri. The rare break from a presidential vacation will last two days, and the White House press corps is a little perplexed.

On Obama's public schedule is a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and the National Security Council on Iraq, where U.S. fighter jets and drones have been firing on Islamic State (ISIS) militants for days. In the afternoon, Obama is meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder to get an update on the unrest in Ferguson.

Obama was in meetings all last week — CNN's Jeffrey Toobin called last week on Martha's Vineyard Obama's "vacation from hell" — but the president has received some criticism for playing golf while so many crises engulf the nation and world.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.