Honestly, if you bother to understand what it is that terrorist organizations are trying to do, what they're attempting to achieve, the base they're playing to, who they're attempting to influence--you would realize they have NOTHING to gain by setting wildfires in random areas. Terrorist groups have no real desire to, nor can they, inflict serious economic damage on a large scale to major nations. And even if they could, forest fires aren't the way to do it.

Terrorist groups that want to become major players have a strategy, honed by Mao and to a lesser extent the Viet Minh: first create a solid base among your target nation, then establish a shadow government among the base, then destabilize the local government in the target nation(the place where most insurgencies collapse), THEN destabilize the national government. Almost nobody ever gets beyond step three, for obvious reasons. Setting big fires in a region, unless that area is solely dependent on timber exports, isn't going to do much more than annoy the local residents and probably kill your base.

Just another example of the local politicians trying to use terrorists as a means to tighten their own grip on the populace, I'd imagine.

Contrabulous Flabtraption: Now there you go, Al Qaeda, using your head finally. There are so many cheap, easy ways to cause havoc. You don't even need to kill anyone. Set a few fires, cut down a few electrical towers, and the rest will take care of itself.

I've been wondering about this sort of thing for a while. If one were going to spread "terror" there are a lot of cheaper and easier ways to do so besides stealing planes and crashing them into buildings. Sure, that sends a big message, but then so does ... a bunch of stuff I just erased because the last thing I need to do is sit here giving assholes new ideas.

They'd better pray to be burned to death rather than be caught with the match in their hands in Russia. Also, I would guess Mr. Putin won't stop with the guy holding the match. He's going to get medieval on their whole family.

Bad idea guys. Really, really bad idea.

Okay, now these farkers need to be purged. Leave nature out of it, you barbaric godfarks

Has Europe, like America, suppressed natural forest fires over wide areas? Could Al Qaeda be doing the ecology a favor by restoring fire to its natural place?

some people just want to see the world burn