Infantryman here, so I can't quite speak to how pilots make their decisions (and I think the sibling comment answers this pretty well). However, I can attest

Infantryman here, so I can't quite speak to how pilots make their decisions (and I think the sibling comment answers this pretty well). However, I can attest that pilots routinely provide us infantrymen with information that we weigh very heavily in our decision to engage. Moreover, it is often the case that air-strikes fall under the "close air support" (CAS) category, which in turn means the aircraft shoots where and when the ground troops request it. In other words: discretion is what separates the professional soldier from the disorganized militia.