XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm   
      
   On Tue, 12 Mar 2013 05:45:12 +0000 (UTC), Steuard Jensen wrote:   
   >   
   > In message , T.M. Sommers   
   >  wrote:   
   > > But since armies are organized hierarchically, to control an army you   
   > > only have to control the commander, not the individual soldiers.   
   >   
   > Well, within limits, right? I mean, if Sauron somehow subverted Prince   
   > Imrahil and made him order his knights to attack their cousins in the   
   > unit from Pelargir beside them, I doubt they'd jump straight to it   
   > with no questions asked! And yet that's the sort of control that (say)   
   > Aragorn would need to exert over Sauron's armies to have any hope of   
   > victory at the Black Gate.   
      
   Well, within limits. :-)   
      
   It's easier to get an army of slaves to turn against their former   
   master than to get an army of free men to turn against their   
   comrades.   
      
   I don't think more than a very few of Sauron's troops felt actual   
   loyalty to him, the way that say Patton's troops did.  Maybe I'm   
   reading too much into the Orcs' conversations that are recorded in   
   LotR, but I get the impression that all of them, except the very top   
   level, operated out of fear of torture more than any general   
   commitment to the cause.   
      
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