A bit of history:
In the early XX century the Spanish Foreign Legion was founded by
José Millán-Astray who was also involved in the spanish translation of Nitobe's "Bushido, the soul of Japan".
Nitobe's Bushido was very influential on his view about how a Legionnaire should behave... and, you know, all those "vices" Mr. Burgess listed in his post (and some more) were "virtues" for the old school Foreign Spanish Legion members.
FWIW