Barack Battles the Horrifying Middle East Monster!

In  trying to account for her boss's baffling foreign policy M.O., flunky Susan Rice said this to the New York Times:

The president’s goal, said Ms. Rice, who discussed the review for the first time in an interview last week, is to avoid having events in the Middle East swallow his foreign policy agenda, as it had those of presidents before him.  

“We can’t just be consumed 24/7 by one region, important as it is,” she said, adding, “He thought it was a good time to step back and reassess, in a very critical and kind of no-holds-barred way, how we conceive the region.”

Sounds like a low budget horror flick, no?--The Beast That Swallowed the Foreign Policy Agenda!

If that's really his goal (and if he isn't winging it/making it up as he goes along), then why, but a few short weeks ago, was he so intent on getting involved in the Syrian mess?