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Originally Posted by Gordis
"The Lieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dûr he was"
Indeed, but not the "Lieutenant of Sauron", not his Second in command. The Morgul lord was Sauron's second in command, his most trusted servant, not MOS.
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Yes, but the main point is that he was there, surely Sauron did not trust MoS (though with no doubt he trusted him more than most of the other servants), he did not trust anyone entirely, indeed, as you quoted, if anyone, then WK who was totally subdued by the Ring (so if you can call it "trust"). But anyway, you cannot deny now that MoS was somewhere around the highest ranks, if not second, then third in command. We are talking different levels of command here (and here I think you misunderstood me in the first place) - MoS was not a general, not a soldier, his rank was not military, but "civil", a "politician", indeed, a minister - while WK was a general.
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And Sauron was one himself and judged the others by his own standards - for instance, he couldn't understand how the other side would reject the Power of the Ring.
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Yes, but he was not entirely stupid and he knew about the laws and customs in M-E. He did not hold them himself, but knew his enemies hold them. Of course there was this possibility that some of the Lords of the West go amok and decapitate MoS, but I doubt Sauron would even have thought of that. And if it even happened, well, collateral damage - but that's not lowering the value of MoS in his eyes; Sauron would probably go mad, in his wrath order to kill all the Westerners, and later, yes, he would appoint a new Lieutenant of Barad-Dur (who will be only happy to achieve higher rank). For illustration, have you ever seen Star Wars? I imagine it like Darth Vader and all these lieutenants of him - or even more, like Darth Sidious losing his apprentices, but with no problems replacing them with new ones when the old one dies. Yet don't tell me they were not important and valued to him when he still had them.