WASHINGTON (AP) — Some of President Barack Obama’s top allies say the president misread a few crucial political forces when he asked Congress to support his bid to strike Syria.

Chief among Obama’s missteps, they say, was underestimating the nation’s profound weariness with military entanglements in the Middle East, fed by residual anger over the origins of the Iraq war, and overestimating lawmakers’ willingness to make risky votes 14 months before the next congressional elections.