Sixteen months before the operation, the Uzbin Valley ambush, on August 18, 2008, by the Taliban in the area of Surobi, Afghanistan, had killed ten French soldiers and wounded twenty-one.[2][4]
Goals
The operation's purpose was "reaffirming the sovereignty of Afghan security forces in the north of the Uzbeen [sic] Valley", according to a French military spokesperson,[4] as well as to plant the Afghan flag in what was called a key strategic village.[which?][5][3] (While 75 percent of the Uzbin Valley had been under ISAF control, the rest of the valley had been under the control of the Taliban.)[3]
The French employed what was called the "Mikado strategy" (la stratégie du Mikado), after the game Mikado (known in North America as "pick-up sticks"),[1] because of the need to plan every move carefully with constant awareness that one wrong step could risk everything being lost.[8] In particular, the Mikado strategy emphasizes consulting with local inhabitants in a shura[1] (or consultation) to minimize the risk of local civilians conspiring against the ANA and ISAF forces.[9] For this reason the operation was preceded by "weeks of negotiations with local villagers", according to the BBC News.[2]
^Durieux, Benoît (October 2010). Le GTIA "Surobi" d'août 2009 à janvier 2010 [The Joint Tactical Group of Surobi from August 2009 to January 2010] (PDF; requires Adobe Acrobat) (in French). p. 18. Tout ceci fait un peu référence au jeu du «mikado», ce jeu de baguettes imbriquées où il faut les retirer une à une sans faire bouger les autres. Pour jouer, il faut d'abord bien saisir comment se présente l'équilibre des différentes petites baguettes entre elles. En Afghanistan, c'est exactement la même chose. Si on fait un geste de travers, on risque de tout faire tomber et de perdre. Mais en même temps, parfois, un seul joli coup peut faire régler la situation de manière durable; on peut alors gagner assez vite.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
