Well said, Mioshi. It runs even deeper than that. Not only did Sauron want to become overlord, but he took special pleasure in the ruination of formerly free peoples. I can't remember where it is in the book, but I think I remember Gandalf describing what it would be like to become Sauron's prisoner. Something about having one's mind and soul bared to that evil intelligence to be picked apart and played with until there was nothing left worth calling a mind. That's a bad reconstruction of it, but close enough for recountings' sake. It tells me that Sauron's work would have only just started once he had become overlord. He then had the next few millenia to psychologically eviscerate his captives. (By the way, I had to look up that word after I wrote it 'cause it's only in the subcategories of my working vocabulary, and oooog! it was right on: evsicerate: to take out the entrails/disembowel) 'nuf said.
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