The Taliban as the Borg

By Irfan Husain

Dawn 16/05/09

AS a result of being glued to our TV screens, watching the fighting and the burgeoning refugee crisis in the northwest, many of us will have missed major events unfolding elsewhere.

I, for one, watched enthralled as the Nasa space shuttle blasted off on Monday to rendezvous with the orbiting Hubble telescope to repair and upgrade the ageing deep space imaging platform. Those who wish to see stunning images from the outer edge of the universe can log on to www.hubblesite.org.

Without making any apologies, let me say that I have always been dazzled by the magic of outer space. Astrophysics and science fiction have dominated many waking hours. Sadly, I do not see mankind travelling out of our solar system in my lifetime, but the Hubble telescope has made it possible for us armchair astronauts to ‘boldly go where no one has gone before’. This immortal line, probably the most famous use of a split infinitive known to the English-speaking world, is the signature opening of the Star Trek series.

Out of the four different series spawned by the original franchise, my favourite remains Star Trek: The Next Generation. Here, Captain Jean Luc Picard and his intrepid crew of the star ship Enterprise fly to the far corners of the universe, encountering adventures involving aliens and bizarre phenomena to do with the space-time continuum. Obviously, they travel at ‘warp speed’ because sub-light velocity would have them crawling through space at less than 186,000 miles per second. At this speed, it would require hundreds of years for the Enterprise to travel from one star system to another.

Running through several episodes are a number of encounters with the Borg, an aggressive culture that assimilates entire species, and annihilates those that resist. Once assimilated, individuals have a number of implants placed within them to incorporate them into the Borg collective. All species thus ‘assimilated’ lose their sense of self, and become small cogs in the giant hive mind, to the extent that they retain no personal memories, and even lose their names. ‘Resistance is futile!’ is what the Borg say to every new species they meet.

Watching a re-run featuring the fearsome Borg, I was struck by how similar they are to the Taliban. Anonymous and terrifying, these bearded holy warriors could easily be an army of clones. Motivated only by ideas put in their unformed minds by the Taliban collective, they kill all who differ with them. Those who fall into line then become foot soldiers. Other recruits to the Taliban cause are drawn from the thousands of madressahs that have proliferated across Pakistan. Here, young men are brainwashed into hating all ideas and influences not sanctioned by their narrow belief system.

Just like the Borg, the Taliban are an implacable foe in their unreasoning drive to assimilate or annihilate all in their path. So certain are they of their monopoly on the one truth that they are not willing to contemplate the possibility of different approaches, different beliefs. And just like the Borg, it is impossible to reason or negotiate with the Taliban. It’s all or nothing for these stone-age warriors.

However, those manipulating them are far more cunning. People like Osama Bin Laden and Baitullah Mehsud are using the dirt-poor, ignorant Taliban as pawns in their attempt to seize power in large parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. In their dream of world conquest, a secure base in the rugged tribal areas would give them the opportunity to raise and train an army to take on the world.

And just as the Borg use cutting-edge technology and deadly weapons to take over entire star systems, the Taliban use the Internet and modern tools to fight western, Afghan and Pakistan armed forces equipped with overwhelming firepower.

It would be a mistake to see the conflict only in ideological terms. At play here is a struggle being waged by the have-nots against the haves. True, most of the victims are poor people, but the Taliban are being urged on with the promise of a better life in this world, with heaven awaiting them if they are killed in the struggle. For the rank-and-file, this is a better deal than anybody else has offered them, so why shouldn’t they be fighting the infidels?

Whenever Captain Picard has attempted to reason with the Borg, he has been rebuffed and the war has resumed. The Borg collective has been programmed to continue their conquest of the universe until every species has either been assimilated or destroyed. So, too, have the Taliban used every negotiated ceasefire to consolidate their gains before expanding their influence.

Given the nature of the foe, it is hard to see how the Taliban and their many offshoots and affiliates can be tamed and contained. It would certainly be a mistake to confuse nationalist struggles waged by Muslims with Islamic groups fighting to impose their benighted views on the rest of the world. The former can negotiate meaningfully as their goals are to do with territory. But the Islamic jihadis want to dominate the world, and force the rest of us to live according to their primitive code.

As mankind explores the stars, and seeks to leave the confines of earth’s gravity, it is hard to believe that we are still locked in an existential battle against a foe that wants to drag us back to the seventh century. For the Taliban, there are no half-measures. As we saw in Swat, they are not content with simply running a territory ceded to them by a weak state. Having grabbed one piece of land, they sense weakness, and want it all.

The Borg, too, spurn offers to negotiate as a sign of feebleness. For them, the only options open to another race is to accept ‘assimilation’ or face destruction. And these are the choices the jihadis are offering. Whatever the likes of Maulana Sufi Mohammad might say, any deals we make with the Taliban have invariably been broken by them, just as the Swat deal was. In the extremist handbook, the adversary only offers to talk when he is weak, so that’s when you go for the jugular.

Finally, just as the Borg do not care about their casualties, the Taliban are completely indifferent to the losses they incur. Their fighters have been indoctrinated into believing that if killed, they will be fast-tracked straight to heaven, where many earthly delights await them. So nobody sheds any tears for fallen Taliban, except their mothers in the dark of the night.

irfan.husain@gmail.com