JAMES TARANTO: Show of Farce: Obama’s Syria approach defies satire.

“I’ve not made a decision.” That was President Obama’s very first answer in a Wednesday interview with “PBS NewsHour.”

A day earlier, the Onion anticipated that comment in a story titled “Obama Weighing His Syria Option.” It included this pretend quote from Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff: “The president recognizes that the situation in Syria is extremely delicate and that the U.S. faces complex consequences regardless of what he chooses; that’s why he’s giving the one option in front of him so much thought. He will not act until he’s confident in the inexorable decision he’s making.”

In the PBS interview, Obama also stressed that the option before him was a minimal one. America will act, he said, “if, in fact, we can take limited, tailored approaches, not getting drawn into a long conflict, not a repetition of, you know, Iraq, which I know a lot of people are worried about.” Politico summed that up with the headline “Obama: Syria Won’t Be Iraq.”

Andy Borowitz, resident satirist at The New Yorker, summed it up with the headline “Obama Promises Syria Strike Will Have No Objective.” Here’s his pretend Obama quote: “Let me be clear. Our goal will not be to effect régime change, or alter the balance of power in Syria, or bring the civil war there to an end. We will simply do something random there for one or two days and then leave.”

Read the whole thing.