[Rhod the Red]

"wasn't the situation blown out of proportion just a bit perhaps?"

How? Sauron had attacked Gondor after making the One Ring simply because the Elven Smiths stopped communicating with him.

It was an unprovocked assult. Plus, once driven out of Dol Guldor, he began massing his armies again. Was there a chance for peace? Well, did he offer one? Remember the scene at the black gate with the Mouth of Sauron. He asserted that the West had attacked Morder and demanded the West accept occupation.

Sauron had already been raiding Ithilian, an act of aggression post-War of the Ring 1. unless you accept his view that he owned Ithillian. therefore it was legitamite for Gondor to strike back after being assulted at osgiliath and finally the capital Minas Tirith. Even at the Black Gate, Aragorn offered a chance for negotiation. But the Mouth of Sauron rejected it, offering a proposal that no rational leader would accept in the first place.

The West had been assulted in the first Ring War, and the second at Ithilian and then Osgiliath. What else were the Gondorians to do? Remember that the Dwarves at the Lonely Mountain get assulted, and Lothlorien. Frodo sees it when at the falls of Rauros wearing the Ring.

So no, nothing was blown out of proportion.