To much mission creep for SOF?

[Belesari]

Was listening to NPR today and one many said something that really suprised me.

The US has at times special forces troops in anywhere from 50-80 countries at any given day. More recently than before.

Now much of this is training which i knew about but some is of a different type. Currently the US has thousands and thousands of them. For just a quick wiki link.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_special_operations_forces"]United States special operations forces - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:Special_Operations_Specops_Army.svg" class="image"><img alt="Special Operations Specops Army.svg" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Special_Operations_Specops_Army.svg/190px-Special_Operations_Specops_Army.svg.png"@@AMEPARAM@@commons/thumb/b/ba/Special_Operations_Specops_Army.svg/190px-Special_Operations_Specops_Army.svg.png[/ame]

So i have a question when is having to many special forces to much? Many are already saying that the normal military units Infantry, heavy cavalry, etc. are going to be done away with in the future (not something i believe will happen or would be wise).

Seals, Green Berets, Force recon, etc are all vital but is there a point where we are using them for many things they dont need to be doing? They are spread to thin doing way to many things it seems.
When teams like the ST6 are being used to reinforce and assist regualar troops ambushed on the ground i have to wonder if maybe to much mission creep has begun. And they need to be refocused and let do the missions they are best at such as the bin ladin raid.

Yes i know many of those countries the SOF guys are just teaching etc. What i mean is the combat teams.

 

[Armoredpriapism]

Special forces are used as trainers a lot, and I think it's good that we have greater numbers of them now. I'm assuming the seals were used on that ill-fated mission because they were ready and well trained for the mission. You wouldn't want to send in regular army or marines into a huge firefight that was meant to capture a high level target if they had spent most of their time the past few months patroling convoys or building walls. If you had experienced troops ready and able you'd use them, right?
I don't think that mission indicated they're especially stretched. The enemy set a trap and executed it and we got unlucky. It happens. There's not much difference between a fresh recruit and a green baret when in a helocopter.