I hear you, Billy.
I agree: a raid is a raid is a raid.
One of the things that felt so good to me when I first joined SF (I was a Bat boy beforehand, a very radical, rebellious Bat boy, and it was a foregone conclusion that I was heading to SF, if only because I knew why the Big Ranger in the Sky included pockets on uniform trousers) was the license that I was suddenly granted to think outside the box.
This was illustrated to me a few times, when we pulled whoppers and generally played unfairly, as used to be the hallmark of old SF.
My favorite example is when I was in the SF Detachment Commander's course. We had a raid to plan. The muldoons in my class wanted to stage a standard raid. I argued for something a little more imaginative, but I was voted down. Whatever.
A Colonel came in and sat down to hear our concept of the operation. He was bored, I could tell, though there was nothing really wrong with our plan. It was straight out of 7-8.
I then committed the cardinal sin of saying, "well, sir, we also had another idea," and I then proceeded to explain how I thought that it made more sense to hijack a van that was used to bring the guard replacements in, then put our own guys in the van, and pull a trojan horse entry onto the objective.
Well. The Colonel woke up. And he told us to plan and implement the mission in that way.
I was forever after considered a spotlight Ranger by the other studs in the course, but...in retrospect, I consider that a compliment. Too many of those guys were water walkers and backstabbers and top blockers, anyway. We actually had one guy who was wearing an unearned Ranger tab. He was busted on the last day of the course.
They let the guy graduate.
He had to take the tab off. But he graduated, and he went on to command an ODA in 7SFGA.
Anyway. I digress.
I honestly do not know what solution to propose. I do know that old SF is different than the risk averse SF that emerged in the early 1990's.
I think that there is a place for the old style Sneaky Petes.
Yes, you have to keep them away from everyone else in peacetime. But when the balloon goes up, you need those guys.
What I would not give to be 20 years younger.
