Portraits of courage.

• Author: Slade, Stephanie
• Position: George W. Bush's "Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief's Tribute to America's Warriors" - Brief article - Book review

Almost 52,000 Americans have been wounded in action during the 21st century wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Some 98 of them are featured in a new book by George W. Bush, Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief's Tribute to America's Warriors (Crown Publishers). The coffee-table tome, which includes paintings by the former president paired with stories about his subjects' lives and his own interactions with them, became a No. 1 bestseller in March.

Some reviewers have found in the works evidence that guilt weighs on Bush's conscience. After all, each pictured man and...