"Bill Clinton exercised such risk, faith and leadership in the Balkans during his term of office. The difference is that not a single American soldier was killed, it cost us a lot less, and there was a true international coalition involved. "

The Balkans were smaller miltary operation- it's comparable to Afghanistan- actually Afghanistan is much tougher in many aspects- bigger population, worse terrian and infrastructure, etc. Iraq is an order of magnitude bigger, but it's more likely to be resolved within shorter period of time and have a lot more benefit resulting- I wouldn't be surprised if in terms of cost the adventure in the Balkans will cost us as much money as Iraq.
And as far as comparing the costs to the civilian population- the Balkans have been a failure and Iraq has been in comparison very successful. Clinton waited too long- and because of his hestiation he may have saved some US soldier's lives, but the civilian population paid dearly. I would say that the Balkans and Afghanistan are quite similar- if Clinton had waited even longer, the area might have been more similar to an afghanistan [and possibly worse].