"Chickening out" from such a foolish proposition is wise once you see the reality of the situation and recognize you are about to die for uteerly foolish, misbegotten and misdirected reasons.
However he came to it ... inspiration, cowardice, realization ... whatever. He did the best thing then possible, and apparently he has now wrtieen about how he was being used. Another good sign.
I agree. However, it is amazing how stupid this individual was in the first place.