It's the airworthiness principles being deliberately missed that Tourist needs to see.
I might be wrong but I think you are missing, deliberately or not, his argument.
He's not arguing airworthiness... He's arguing safety and it's potential detrimental effect on operational effectiveness. Safety has very little to do with airworthiness once one is in combat. As long as the airframe we send our men and women up in the air is airworthy then what they do with it is their job. You seem to think that unless they are invincible the aircraft is un-airworthy. If that's the case you are wrong.