I happen to think SF killed their brand in GWOT by doing the "night wet work" that any competent 0311, 11B or a high speed slice of Ranger Regiment could do; they got drunk on DA at the expense of their core missions. I don't think SF has ever practiced UW despite giving it lip service; practicing FID in semi-permissive areas is an impossibility with the skills the modern A-Det has even if working in concert with other A-Teams task organized from the deployed B-Team.

SF has literally operated outside their origination niche for so long they are now simply a feeder mechanism from 75th with some candidates working their way through selection to CAG and ancillary "black SOF" organizations. SF has a hell of a time maintaining competent language skills outside of 7th Group. Their cultural loiter time in countries is measured in weeks in given FID assignments. Air-breathing and non-air-breathing ISR loiter modalities has now made Strategic Reconnaissance (SR) a moot mission set. Counter Terrorism (CT) is now exclusively a CAG enterprise with SF and Rangers on outer perimeter duty if tasked.

SF (as organized today) could disappear tomorrow and it would not make an operational or strategic differences in campaign segments of a larger conflict. Having served with these units, it saddens me to come to that conclusion.