My take on the book was that he was emphasizing the economic aspects of the Comanche rise to power.
When horsepower was king, the Comanches ruled, when the Comanches outnumbered the anglos, they dominated, when the Comanches had a quiver of 20-30 arrows against the whites single shot rifles and pistols, they ruled.
When the Texans became horsemen, when they got repeating rifles and pistols, and became proficient with them, when their population went from 20,000 to 600,000, Texans started to dominate (some measles, cholera or smallpox might have helped as well.)
Clearly, any sodbusters caught out alone were toast.
Torture is a cultural construct, that doesn't really impact the economics, except as it reduces the ability of slaves to do economic work (for the purposes of this analysis).
Sycamore
