Where did all the goblins go?

[mhagain]

'I'd like to try somewhere where there's none of 'em. But the war's on now, and when that's over things may be easier.'
'It's going well, they say.'
'They would.' grunted Gorbag. 'We'll see. But anyway, if it does go well, there should be a lot more room. What d'you say? – if we get a chance, you and me'll slip off and set up somewhere on our own with a few trusty lads, somewhere where there's good loot nice and handy, and no big bosses.'
'Ah! ' said Shagrat. 'Like old times.'

I think "Like old times" is the key element of this quote. There was once a time when orcs acted as free agents without any "big bosses", and so - unless their nature has been changed dramatically in the interim - they would subsequently be able to do so again.

It's also blindingly obvious from this that orcs are - and I must emphasise this - rational free-thinking beings. Whatever version of their origin you may subscribe to, it must go without saying that rational free thought can only derive from Eru.

Think of Aule and the Dwarves - when he first created them, they were only able to move and act at his command. Now, this was a small number of Dwarves and one of the mighty of the Valar.

Now contrast. Sauron is a Maia, still powerful, but Aule would be off the scale by comparison (in fact, Aule was Sauron's original "master"). And it's not a small number of orcs, it's tens of thousands.

So no question about it, the orcs would have easily survived Sauron's downfall, no differently to the Haradrim, Variags or Easterlings.