[Lady Of Light]

I feel that your comparison of men to orcs and dragons and balrogs is quite unfair. Men were not born evil, it is just the nature of the race to turn towards evil occasionally. All of the races go a little evil at one point or another ('cept maybe dwarves, but I'm biased there!) Even elves had their blunders. When they had that nasty little kinslaying affair, they were not branded as evil. Nor when Feanor sorta messed everything up were they evil. Elves are not by nature bad, and that goes the same for men.

Tolkien wasn't making excuses for men, that was how they were created. They are mortals, and tend to get their priorities mixed up, that's all. Perhaps that they are the "second batch" of the children of Eru had something to do with it. The other fell creatures (listed above) were not created by Eru, and maybe that had some influence. It is therefore unfair to compare creatures born of evil to those who are not, if a little flawed.

We also happen to come in on a rather bad time for men. With all the evil and corruption going on, can it be helped if there are some less-than-noble deeds? Notice that all of the mens' evil stems back to the corrupting power of Sauron. It is not they who are evil, they are just prone to fall for it.