Defending Minas Tirith a strategic error?

[rutslegolas]

I agree with Tuor of Gondolin,the men of Minas Tirth were in greater danger than they even could have forseen,and they certainly would have been destroyed had not the Rohirrim come to their aid at that time .

I should say that Denethor's policy did not work,I think he Should'nt have sent men to Osgiliath as a small garrsion . These men were slaughtered for no reason.
I think these men would have been better used if they had remianed in Minas Tirith.

And as Rimbaud says abondoning your strong defenses to a "raze an burn" policy is rarely succesfull.They could have used this policy had Minas Tirith fallen.

[Kath]

I agree with rutslegolas about Denethor's sending of Faramir and company to Osgiliath being pointless but at this point Denethor's mind was already in the final stages of being overthrown by despair. He had already lost the son he loved best and I think he was desperate to see something of Boromir in Faramir. He may have honestly believed that if Boromir were there he could have taken Osgiliath back and sort of guilt-tripped Faramir into going by promising love if he lived up to the legend of Boromir.

Denethor was pretty much insane by this point anyway so he may have just not had a clue what he was doing! But then, I'm not sure if I'm remembering this correctly it may be a film thing that has forced it's way into my mind, but didn't Denethor say something about fighting being pointless and they were all going to die anyway so decide how you want to? Because if the answer to all that rambling is yes then maybe he thought Faramir would prefer to die in battle - with honour.

[Boromir88]

Actually sending Faramir to Osgiliath was Denethor's only mistake in defending Minas Tirith. Denethor learned a lot from the palantir, he knew where Sauron was going to attack, and where he was going to hit hardest, he did a very good job defending Minas Tirith, for the fact I mean not one enemy entered into the City. For it wasn't Gandalf who set up the defenses, Gandalf was sort of that motivational pep talker, Denethor was the man who set up the defenses. When Gandalf got to Minas Tirith, the beacons were lit, Hirgon was sent out, walls were set up outside of Minas Tirith, so Denethor did a very nice job defending the city. Too bad the palantir made him crazy in the process. The gates broke and Rohan arrived. I do agree though if it wasn't for Rohan Minas Tirith would have fallen. But if it wasn't for Aragorn, and the 50 ships full of men from Lebennin, the rohirrim would have gone down with Minas Tirith.