One of the things which has puzzled me for a long time involves wording. This may be controversial, though I don’t think it should be.
Suicide bombers, people who blow themselves up in their roles as being vehicles for bombs, are universally referred to as “cowards”. They are disparaged as picking on non-combatants as well as combatants and vilified as evil and uncivilized.
Now pilots who bomb cities from altitude, bombing men, women, children, houses, animals, literally everything are not regarded as cowards, but as heroes, America’s finest, warriors from the greatest traditions even though they do not unduly risk their lives and never see their victims.
I would think the person who believes so much in their causes they are willing to die for them is more courageous than the person who simply sits in a flying office and takes relatively few chances.