I've seen detergent bottles that were more apprehensive about their process of use.
War is terrible, but this is one of the very few situations in modern combat where there is a clear line between civilians and the combatants. Everyone engaged is a willing participant.
In this situation I'll apply Doug Stanhope's logic:
> As long as the people who kinda wanna go kill other people are going to go kill other people who kinda wanna go kill other people, you're killing all the right people and opening up all the best parking spaces.
Funny quote, but I don't think front-line infantry have the best parking spaces. That would be the flag officers.
Conscription is a thing in many countries. Not sure how many conscripts are flying, though.
I didn't check to see if the article referenced any sources, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that a primary one was a conversation with an F-16 pilot.
There is no reason to assume this sort of thing only occurs among high schoolers, or in any case that a Gizmodo writer would be more likely to embark upon a serious consideration of the moral weight of aerial combat than to focus on its literal and figurative whiz-bang, wow-cool-robot aspects, of which there is no shortage.
https://www.quora.com/How-does-a-fighter-jet-lock-onto-and-k...
Edit: Quora link.
Fighter pilots are kind of the ultimate cool kids from the perspective of a milstuff nerd, and there is an unusual degree of hero worship among that cohort already.
War is about killing. It's an ugly fact but fact nevertheless. It seems like the world kill offends you, but it is an accurate description of the severity of what's going on.