No I don't think suicide bombers are cowards or in it for personal gain, however I do think they are manipulated into being suicide bombers by people who are. Its been a long time since I saw the show, but in my memory it was portrayed exactly right. Col Tigh found a desperate kid and started using his own methods to manipulate him into making the ultimate sacrifice.

My problem isn't how it was portrayed it or even that suicide bombers aren't effective. Any other show that would have been perfect. My problem was in the set up. They were fighting an invincible enemy. Any moron could see they were throwing their life away without any possible gain to the war effort.

I remember Moore talking about an earlier draft of that episode where the resistance was kidnapping key leadership cylons and incarcerating them in a hidden room under suicide watch so they couldn't resurrect and rejoin the war. Moore decided to abandon that route and go with suicide bombers for the impact. I agree it made a bigger impact, but at the cost of story plausability in my opinion. Of course by this point in the storyline I was desperate for a way off of New Caprica and was happy anything at all was happening.