[Gwaihir the Windlord]

Hang on. Lord of Angmar first:

What I am saying is that evil can be part of a race and yet individuals of that race can still be defined by traits other than evil.

Yes, but the thing is that all Orcs were bent towards evil, no matter what their other traits.

Since Tolkien described Illuvatar the Creator as the only one who could attain true perfection, then anything rooted in his creation cannot be utterly and inherently evil.

Do you realise this to mean that everything is rooted in his creation? Melkor included, and if he wasn't totally evil I don't know who is. The world and everything in it is his creation ultimately.
Basically, Illuvitar is the source of everything.

Finwe:

Why blame an entire race, or entire country, for the actions of a Saddam or an Osama bin Laden?

Comparing Orcs to the public of a nation is a rather bad analogy. Orcs are, as individuals really nasty people. And every Orc is like this.

Fear can drive a person to do many things that they normally wouldn't do.

Yes, the Orcs were afraid (mostly of each other); but how does cowardice -- or their ability to fear, anyway -- redeem them in any way? How does fearing improve them? It was fear that orginised the Orcs, it that's what you mean, but that does not mean that without a master -- Sauron, for example -- they would have been OK. They would have been aimless, but still pretty bad.

That's why, don't blame the Orcs, put the blame where it's deserved, on Sauron (and Morgoth).

Morgoth created the Orcs. He is their source. They are evil because of him, and yes, the blame does lie on Melkor and none other for scourging the Earth in this way. The Orcs did not create themselves.
They are still inherently evil though, even more so because they are the spawn of the most evil of all -- Morgoth. It isn't their fault, but they are this way nonetheless.

Dynaviir was next.

I've actually found myself growing in pity for them; more misunderstood and exploited by their rulers.

As I said above, the fact that they were manipulated -- by none other than their natural Lord, I might add, Morgoth and then Sauron -- doesn't take away their evilness at all. And they were understood to be exactly what they were, and that is foul creations that are iredeemably bad.

I think because they were harsh and because they ate many other races that they became feared and hated.

Orcs are the absolute force of evil in a race; every one of them was bad, and as you said yourself, every one of them was hostile towards everything and everyone. Evilness on a stick.

Ok, I think that about covers it (So I don't need to start on you, chainsaw [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]. My apologies for making my post in this format, but I thought I'd just say what I though about the main material raised in the posts here against mine.

BTW, when you argue that Orcs cannot be evil, because they are 'an entire race', you seem to forget that the rest of Ea in fact exists. Rather than looking at the Orcs as being everything in your vision, consider them more as a part of the greater world, which does contain the good to make up for the Orcs' evil.

Finally, think; did the Orcs ever show anything other than rottenness, and did they ever have a redeeming feature? It is not their fault as such that they are that way, I agree with you -- but the fact is that they really are.