I think you are getting stuck on the title of my post and not the content of it.
I agree you can't judge foreign policy success based on military deaths....but you can judge it on whether those deaths resulted in a positive outcome like WW1, WW2, Korea, and the first Gulf War or a negative outcome like Iraq and Vietnam.
And the more deaths there are, the more important it is that the war was a success.
...and the result of the deaths in Iraq is that a country that wasn't a threat to us now is a huge threat. In other words, wasted lives and wasted dollars. That's why W's foriegn policy was such a colossal failure. Although we accomplished nothing in Vietnam (country ended up ruled by the Commies) at least we didn't create a scenario that was worse (for us) than before we invaded. Iraq is the only military engagement we've ever had that made a situation worse. That's why it was the worst foreign policy mistake in our country's history and why W. Bush is our worst president ever when it comes to foreign policy.