Speaking of distorting reality, you say:

- 'journalist' while article says 'an enlisted man in the U.S. Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade'

- 'just for the kicks' was sense I got from this paragraph of the article: 'Hensinger, sensing an opportunity, stuffed his Nikon camera, ...' and 'He timed his appearance for guard duty to make sure that he would be assigned to the watch tower with the widest view of the mountain and base.'

- Suffering is to some extent measure of morality. For example, recent US military operations heavily used drones. It is one thing to fly drone using XBox gamepad and kill for <insert noble cause here>, and another to shoot soldiers who invaded your country using some primitive gun. First is more similar to video game than to war. Second is more moral, and includes more suffering, no matter what mental acrobatics you use against it.