Most U.S. citizens still are supportive of the war on terrorism after three U.S. soldiers were killed by “friendly fire” Wednesday in Afghanistan, political experts say.

Steffen Schmidt, university professor of political science, said the casualties didn’t weaken public support for the Bush administration.

“Americans support the military action in enormous numbers,” he said. “People will say you can avoid some casualties, but they have been amazingly low on the U.S. in this campaign.”

People are more horrified by war causalities when they do not understand why the United States is fighting, such as the case in Vietnam, Schmidt said.

Capt. Dan Runyon, adjunct instructor of military science and tactics, said the three deaths were an unfortunate incident.

“Generally, they were closer than they should have been,” he said. “When you are talking large air strikes, the area of safety increases a lot.”

The zone of safety depends on many factors, Runyon said, such as whether the bomb was dropped from a plane and the type and amount of explosives.

“President Bush has been very open about everything that is going on with the war and he will continue to be that way unless it compromises national security,” he said.

People understand there will be casualties on both sides of the war, Runyon said.

Richard Mansbach, professor of political science, said the international community may not even notice the deaths.

There may be some amusement as far as the international community is concerned with the United States killing its own, he said.

“Most countries in the world lose large numbers of people every day from disease or murder,” Mansbach said.

“The fact that three people were killed probably doesn’t move them.”

Schmidt said he was impressed with the action taken by the Bush administration during the Afghanistan campaign.

“This administration has said this is going to be a long campaign,” he said. “There will be casualties, and we will have to deal with it.”

Schmidt said people will understand the casualties as long as they remain low.

“If you begin to see Americans being killed every week, then you will see public opinion changing against the war,” he said.

International support for the campaign has not decreased, Mansbach said.

Countries that supported the United States early in the Afghanistan campaign were either scared of the United States or had other self-motivating reasons for supporting America’s actions, he said.

“We have not lost a lot of support because we have stayed with the rules of engagement and had a small number of confirmed civilian deaths,” Mansbach said.

More countries are beginning to respect the United States for the actions in Afghanistan, he said.

“We appear to be winning the campaign and a lot of folks respect winners,” Mansbach said. “But that is different than support.”