An acceptable loss is a sacrifice that is deemed an acceptable cost of doing business. For instance, a church may deem the loss of members who disagree with an evangelical shift to be acceptable if the alternative is to forgo other goals.^[1] Anticipated casualties in a military campaign may be held to be acceptable losses as well.^[2] A terrorist group may consider the loss of its own members in suicide attacks to be acceptable losses needed to accomplish the mission.^[3] The implications of the term may be summed up as "What are we willing to lose to achieve a goal?"^[4] During military battles, field commanders are prepared to accept the loss of up to 33% of their troops during combat.^[5]

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