[denethorthefirst]

But if that was the case, why was Manwe not willing to communicate that clearly to the Noldor (or their leadership)? Just meet them and say: "Yes Feanor, you are right, Melkor must be punished and the Silmaril regained. But outright war could destroy a lot of Middle-Earth, so it would be best to just besiege and contain him for a while and whittle away at his power - just wait awhile while I muster the volunteers for the mission, we are all on the same page here." ... was that so hard? All that followed, especially the kinslaying, is as much a failure of the Noldor as it is a failure of the Valar in my opinion. Where were they during that battle?

In your quote Tolkien wrote that Melkor, confronted with the full might of Valinor, could have reacted with destructive rage. I do not believe that Melkor had it in him to enact catastrophic damage on that scale. And if he could, why did he not do so after the arrival of the Noldor? Wasnt his situation after the arrival of the Noldor almost comparable to a full on assault from Valinor? After all, the Noldor managed to destroy all his armies and they even banged on his door! And yet he did not react with "nihilistic rage". Maybe because he was no longer able to alter the geography of Arda to that effect. You may mention the sinking of Beleriand as a counter-argument, but in my opinion the damage that was done to Beleriand during the War of Wrath was probably as much due to the invading valinorean armies and their superior power as it was to Melkors forces. Or I am wrong and maybe Melkor could have annihilated all the Elves and the whole of Beleriand during the arrival of the Noldor and he chose not to do it because he felt secure and safe in Angband? Maybe he knew that, no matter how many armies the Noldor defeat in the field, that they never would possess the necessary power to break the gates of Angband.

And after all, the Noldor almost won, even as late as 472 F.A.. Maybe just a few Vanyar legions and a few Maiar would have made all the difference. Given all that, I actually find it rather hard to believe that, maybe a few hundred years after the flight of the Noldor, none of the Maiar rebelled and just said: "F... it Manwe, I´m going to Middle-Earth to help the Elves, better late than never, thats my job after all, you can stay here and sulk on your throne.". At least thats what I would have done.

Be that as it may, the passive stance of the Valar, their inaction in the face of imminent genocide, still strikes me as extremely petty and hypocritical. If they just went in, before Melkor could infuse Beleriand with his power, maybe Beleriand could even be saved and would not have suffered such extensive damage. Instead they were perfectly fine with sacrificing all the Elves (all the Sindar, Nandor and Avari) in Middle-Earth, just to punish those pesky Noldor. The Valar could just as well have said: yes, the Noldor are in the wrong, but it is equally wrong to punish the Sindar and Avari for the evil deeds of the Noldor; we will punish the Noldor in due time but still protect the Moriquendi. If i was an Elf in Middle-Earth, say one of the Nandor, ruled by a peaceful Lord and far removed from any politics and suddenly my home gets destroyed by a marauding horde of orcs and trolls I would have actually felt betrayed by the Valar and refused a "return" to Valinor just for that one reason.