Ruairi,
I've read the book and thoroughly enjoyed it, I don't necessarily agree with everthing he does, but on the whole I think it was a good experiment. The most telling parts were at the end where he examines what went wrong, how they could improve and then when he re-visited some of the participants six months and then five years later.
To me there are always going to be cultural and ethnic barriers to teaching stuff like this in this format, I think there should have been a fairly long build up phase where the various methods were explained and trialed prior to being enforced. I think more of the participants would have accepted the regimes if they'd have had time to acknowledge the benefits first. Perhaps volunteers could have undergone parts of the program and then presented back to the rest of the participants as a peer endorsement.
As to wether this is the right way to instill a "warrior spirit" that has been discussed elsewhere. I don't necessarily agree with the method, but elements of it are definitely useful to the modern warrior.
Regards
Neil
Neil Hawkins
"The one thing that must be learnt but
cannot be taught is understanding"