Are snipers and recon still valid in infantry battalions?

[William F. Owen]

Wilf, could you elaborate your this thought in this thread context.

PBID essentially suggests that you train, organize, and operate light infantry in a way that best utilizes their inherent strengths. In practice, this means that you train infantry to accomplish two basic tasks, these being a reconnaissance patrol and an observation post. These two core skills are built on a high level of individually developed field-craft skills. In simplistic but easily understood terms, you train Soldiers as snipers and then train them as a recce platoon.
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Why? Surely this is completely against the teaching that only the brightest, best, and most experienced of infantry unit Soldiers become snipers and members of the recce platoons.

Ahhhh.... well spotted. Yes I do have to explain this. What I was intending to outline was training ALL soldiers in a high degree of individual skills, and using the acknowledged basics of sniping and scouting as a base from which to start. I have since dropped this as when I presented it at RUSI, there was outrage from the UK sniper community - albeit for mostly inexplicable and entirely emotional reasons.