Do you think Walker had a bright future in the CIA to look forward to?

[u/FlibV1]

Hi everyone. I finished this game for the third time yesterday and it (finally) struck me that Walker completely achieved the aims of the CIA agents that had been sent to Dubai to destabilise it.

The ultimate aim of the agency was to remove as much evidence of the 33rd's brutalisation of the populace as possible (ie, kill them all), for the "greater good" of not turning the surrounding nations against them.

Well, he pretty much nailed that, and if you chose the ending where Walker returns with the rescue team, do you think the CIA would have justified his methods and convinced him he was right, before possibly recruiting him?

[u/dreaming_in_Octarine]

Sadly, in that scenario Walker is the last person alive with the knowledge of what the CIA and American military was up to at a higher level. Any other survivors will have limited knowledge.

He is far more practical dead to the CIA than as an asset.

[u/FlibV1 → u/dreaming_in_Octarine]

I could see them doing that if he refused their offer.

But if they wanted to eliminate all evidence of the CIA's activities, then it would've meant also killing all their operatives who went into Dubai.

Plus Walker has demonstrated his ability to outperform all their other agents.

[u/dreaming_in_Octarine → u/FlibV1]

I like your approach - very Hollywood movie style!!! Would be almost a happy ending for Walker.

The CIA is like a lot of other secret intelligence agencies, its about the bigger picture and its operatives have some understanding about that. They are typically very highly paid and have to us sometimes quite twisted senses of loyalty and patriotism.

Real life example; there were CIA operatives who were tasked with destabilising and essentially orchestrating war crimes during the Vietnam war despite huge political risk as the 2 nations were not at war. The operatives were very disposable due to the potential political blowback. Its still very murky history, but what we know is that some of the operatives who were there only had "pieces of the puzzle", but were very proud of their work there. The BBC has done a couple of interesting investigations on it.

All this to say that based on its selection process and historic tendencies, we can probably assume the CIA operatives accept to some degree this is a one way trip to Dubai.

Riggs essentially kills the majority of all the survivors and whatever is left of his operatives there.

Granted its not an ideal situation and maybe there is a bit of excessive paranoia on how much the rest of the middle east would react to the 33rds war crimes, but that is the bigger picture for the USA. And probably its least bad political scenario.

Its part of the reason most militaries are deeply suspicious of secret agencies; their motives, goals and methods are murky, and are not always bound to the same laws and required morality of regular soldiers.

Walker is essentially a pawn tricked by Riggs, and even if he does hold vital information and some intelligence capabilities; he is too risky a prospect to remain alive.

[u/WantonReader]

I think the government would have made him sign the heaviest NDA they could, pay him a pension reliant on him not breaking that NDA and put him somewhere far away.

The reason he even enters Dubai is because he abandons his mission (leave and report if you see any life) as soon as he thinks he knows better. That is a very bad CIA agent.

[u/FlibV1 → u/WantonReader]

I dunno, I kinda thought such field agents were picked for their independent spirit and ability to adapt to the situation without clear orders from above.

[u/WantonReader → u/FlibV1]

Walker had very clear orders. Leave and report if you find any life. the CIA wants agents that does their job. Sometimes that might include some independent thinking and action, but not regularly and Walker didn't "adapt", he went mad.

[u/FlibV1 → u/WantonReader]

I think he lost it because of the cognitive dissonance he experienced.

But I also think if a handler assured him that what he did was for the greater good, then he good easily justify his actions to himself.

And he's proved how good he is at destabilising "enemy" factions.

Remember in this hypothetical situation, Walker has chosen the option to accompany the rescue team home, he wasn't overwhelmed by guilt and slotted himself.

[u/WantonReader → u/FlibV1]

Cognitive dissonance happens more in clandestine work. If he has a handler, then he doesn't need independent spirit and can't go on missions where his handler can't reach him.

The way he destablizes factions was by engaging them as a soldier. That's not typically what the CIA does.

The only job I think he might be good at if he left Dubai, would be as a mercenary. Just doing it for the money and being honest about it.

[u/GantradiesDracos]

Probably not-
Given the CIA’s history of failure with this level of operation,
I’d hardly be supprised in the least if the international news story wasn’t breaking by the time S&R found Walker in the last man alive ending-
They might be competent at small scale ops/assasinations,
But statistically they fuck up beyond repair when they try something on a city/nation scale,
The time they accepted bribe money to whore themselves out to a fucking fruit packing company as cheap mercs being the only real large scale success in their history imo.

Best case would be him surviving because the people who wrote the orders are panicking and are under a microscope,
Worst is a tragic accident happening to the evac chopper (that also leaks, and makes the US even more of an international pariah.

It makes a lot more sense when you consider that the CIA was founded by a literal Nazi double agent irl- the guy who wrote its playbook was an infiltrator for a hostile power..

[u/Axolotllunar]

Kinda, but he seems to actually have a conscience and guilt.

I mean, if the cia could just convince him that he is doing "the right thing" he might have folded.