Safe for troops?

The news this morning on NPR mentioned that more troops will be put on the streets of Iraq, because it is now safe for the soldiers according to the Secretary of Defense. This seems like an extremely strange way to use soldiers. You don't put them in a position where they may get hurt. Isn't it inherent in the definition of a soldier that they work in unsafe places? What kind of war do you have where you don't deploy soldiers until it is "Safe"? I don't know how we ever would have defeated the enemy in World War Two if we didn't send troops until it was safe.