Why didn't Sauron lead the attacks?

[fatclown]

I belive you are overlooking the strategic element behind sauron's thinking. Alright. Sauron and Gandalf would not have been able to defeat eachother because neither presented a distinct advantage. Sauron's principal goal was to retreive his ring. In his current form as the lidless eye, all he was trying to do was find the ring. Only with the ring would he be able to defeat everything. I also think sauron didn't require a presence at that battle. Besides he had the Witch King of Angmar, an immensly powerful captain leading his forces, and gothmog, the luietenant of minas morgul.

Another thing, gandalf is very modest in his power. Both he and the balrog are of the same race, the maiar. But gandalf merely needed to die to unleash some of his power. As the white nothing the balrog could do could have defeated gandalf and was actually slain without difficulty, just a lot of effort on gandalf's part. Gandalf wasn't supposed to control people, he was merely a guider. He was supposed to help the people of middle earth, not exercise his power and do the job for them.

As for the battle of dagorlad, sauron is a spirit that inhabits BODIES he cannot be slain, but the flesh he had his ring on was cut off, forcing his spirit to flee. Like melkor, sauron can't die, he is merely banished to another realm. Also, the nazgul cannot be harmed by common steel, so they were definately worthy represenatives to lead his forces as he concentrated his efforts on retreiving the ring and keeping a vigil on mt. doom.

Another possibliity is the fact that if sauron was defeated in his physical form and banished to search for a new body, Mt. Doom would be left wide open for his ring's destruction