Quote:
Originally Posted by Ibrīnišilpathānezel
That's what I was thinking. Saruman may have had his own kind of brilliance, but applying it to military matters was apparently not among them. He was good when it came to the development of military devices and training, but he didn't, apparently, have a lot of practical experience with warfare. As far as we know, he never went out and fought in a large battle during his time in ME. We know that Gandalf did (the Battle of the Five Armies, at the very least). The only fight I can think of in which Saruman may have been involved directly is the attack on Dol Guldur, and even then, I don't think it would have been quite the same (the fact that Saruman was reluctant to attack Sauron in the first place makes me wonder how actively involved he really was). Particularly after Gandalf managed to escape Orthanc with knowledge that Saruman was building up forces of his own, he seemed very concerned about exposing his hand too soon. Without enough practical experience as a military commander, he would make mistakes, I think. And it appears that he did.
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Occasionally I wonder if this was a fault of Tolkien or a fault of Saruman. Ultimately, a character can't be smarter or wiser than the author who penned him, and I have seen plenty of other authors who have written some strange ways of thinking for supposedly intelligent characters.
In the end, I'm inclined to believe that Saruman's lack of sound strategic thinking is a fault of Saruman. Tolkien went out of his way to show someone who was too cunning for his own good.