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Again, I presume that Gandalf had a back up plan (possibly infiltrating Mordor and vanquishing the Eye... Mithrandir, being a Maiar in full power could have banished Sauron, a maiar in disgrace)
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Nope. The ONLY way to defeat Sauron was to destroy the ring, simple as. Infilitrating Mordor would've been nigh on impossible, for the purpouse of reaching Barad-dur and 'vanquishing Sauron' and even then vanquishing a power that was at least coeval with Gandalf in the beggining, would've been nigh on impossible to.
Also Sauron was not an 'eye', I think Tolkien mentions he had reached incarnate form.