[Gothmog]

If the stafff makes it EASIER to cast spells, why does he not use his staff on the two of the most important confrontations - 1/ on the door to the chamber he had to say a Word of Command - which spent him of most of his power and 2/ breaking Saruman's staff - neither of these occasions did he use his staff, but in the case of number 1 - Ten minutes later he DOES use his staff to break the Bridge. Very confusing I have to admit....... a mistake by the Author??????

I don't have any good answers to your question, but I can see one explanation for case 2 if we look at this action as the official end of Saruman's power more than an actual breaking of it. It might be that Saruman, by his disobedience towards Valar, has lost his power and Gandalf only performs the last, official act in removing the power. He takes away Saruman's token of office and power: his staff. If that's the case, Gandalf wouldn't need any great power to break it. One can also suspect the interference of Valar, that Gandalf has their support in this action and only works as a tool for the execution of their will. That would perhaps give him the power of Valar for this task and the use of a staff would be unnecessary.

In the first case, we don't even know what this Word of Command really is, so how can we discuss the necessity of a staff for this? This Word of Command is a word and maybe it's used orally, without any special focusing of it's power? I don't know...