This is an interesting thread. Animalmother I find it fascinating that you think Gandalf lied in order to not corrupt any people in the Council. Your argument makes sense to me;and I LIKE it, somehow; except I would suggest that Middle-Earth is NOT earth as we know it(of course, this is obvious, but bear with me.) Gandalf consistently not only displays an ability to manipulate(towards the common good) but an ability to "fire up men's hearts" to instill courage--of course I know you know that. But Gandalf displays another trait very consistently, so consistently that he's able to let go of the most powerful instrument on Earth, and let it go into darkness and uncertainty; this would be sheer madness if we were talking about an atomic bomb, wouldn't it?
This other trait that Gandalf displays--and which I think you forget-- is FAITH.
He has a FAITH in a higher power that leads him to believe that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, Frodo was meant to have it, and possibly, hopefully, Frodo was meant to somehow wander into Mordor and destroy the Ring, and so on. He displays FAITH in Pippin; somehow, for somereason Merry and Pippin are MEANT to be in the Fellowship of the Ring, and so on.
Given that Elrond has a certain faith, too, that the Members of the Council had been "called" for the purpose of the council(though not by him, actually ORDAINED by some higher power to be there) I think it's possible that Gandalf would have trusted that it was indeed and spoken freely. Also, I think that Gandalf and Elrond, and a few others in the Council could sense corruption and evil better than most; they weren't easily deceived--it took a Wizard to pull the wool over their eyes.
In my opinion in your interpretation, Gandalf did not have much faith; he sent Frodo away because there was no other choice, merely. But I don't find that believable: only in the context of Gandalf's incredible FAITH(though not doubtfree) does the decision to send off Frodo to Mordor seem believable to me, character-wise.
Also...from Saruman's side.
Again, your interpretation is plausible; there's something even cool about it; but he simply could have been a little batty, and slipped up.
He did not necessarily understand Gandalf's intentions; perhaps a little part of Saruman had always wanted to rule and he simply assumed, as Gandalf was of the same high, rare order as he that Gandalf had the same intentions--that they were meant to counter Sauron: and one way to do that was to rule.
I say SARUMAN DID NOT UNDERSTAND GANDALF at all; because Gandalf had a certain FAITH(maybe Faith is a sort of wisdom) and Saruman didnt have it and never had had it.
His "wisdom" had always been more as you have painted Gandalf's--a Machiavellian, scheming, clever, manipulative wisdom.
Gandalf could be that way, too, to be sure, but his chief wisdom and what set him aside from many in Middle Earth was in his trust in FAITH and belief that some things happened for an ordained reason; in the ability to seize the moment and come up with creative solutions(like sending Frodo to the fire--only someone with extreme faith would have done that) and so on.
Your interpretation is fascinating; and, within the translator's conceit, makes some sense; but there are other interpretations.
Also, regarding the "ten men a day" thing needed for feeding orcs...I don't agree. He did not have to feed them man-flesh every ten days...It could have only been on holidays. I would also say, that perhaps mans-flesh was something that Orcs LOVED like a drug; in which case, Saruman might have given them just a taste and promised them more once victory was at hand. In which case, he would have needed to feed them much less than 230 kgs a year...Maybe only 230 kgs a year...Also, whenever they went on a raid, (say before the eoreds started fighting them at the Fords) as long as they found some farmers or something, they would get a little mansflesh as a bit of a "reward"--their spoils, so to speak. (But never enough, never enough) Yum.
(i know the idea is horrid, but I think the Orcs ARE horrid and Tolkien plays it down, actually.)