Actually, I think that the term comes more from a reaction against the implied "virtue" of martyrdom. It's not plausible that more than a handful of people, hearing the phrase "suicide bomber", would be led to believe that this person was just depressed and decided to take only his own life with this particular method.
But there are some people, especially in other counties, who might think that killing others in a suicide bombing is a glorious way to go. The phrase "homicide bomber" is a reaction against these people, just as "freedom fries" is a reaction against the French.
It's great that we can make statements against people we don't like, but why do we have to hijack our language to do it? For those who just want information from their news and are not in favor of homicidal "martyrdom", the language just became more confusing and less informative. Our language has already been screwed up enough in the quest to make various types of statements.
People who don't want to have to order "freedom fries" are not necessarily pro-French. People who happen to object to the term "homicide bomber" in this context do not have any less concern for the innocent victims of suicide bombers than you do.
Good post.