An army which has to fight a revolutionary war changes in character--it changes very seriously in character. This has not yet been studied, but it must be clearly recognized and is certainly worth the study.


A very penetrating insight. One of the best books I've ever read on this is Deadly Embrace: Morocco and the Road to the Spanish Civil War, about the Spanish Army of Africa's counterinsurgency campaign in Spanish Morocco. The Africanista officers like Franco who made their careers in the exceedingly brutal crushing of the Rif revolt, which featured liberal use of chemical weapons, torture, and massacre, would later use the same methods against the Spanish people during the civil war --- ironically often at the head of units of Moroccan mercenaries. These men became radically separated from society in the prewar years, even separated from the peninsular army which stayed in Spain.