Why didn't Saruman kill the Ents himself?

[Nikkolas]

I kinda touched on this matter in my own thread
http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthr...hlight=Saruman

I think the confusion is understandable - Gandalf the Grey, an inferior power to Saruman the White, had an epic struggle with a Balrog. Fighting the Ent's forces seems like nothign in comparison.
But Inziladun supplied a great quote that may hold the answer:

'I don't know what Saruman thought was happening; but anyway he did not know how to deal with it. His wizardry may have been falling off lately, of course; but anyway I think he has not got much grit, not much plain courage alone in a tight place without a lot of slaves and machines and things, if you know what I mean. Very different from old Gandalf.'

Saruman is perhaps just not suited for combat, lacking the necessary courage or fortitude to expend himself and his essence in a life-threatening manner like Gandalf did.

[Puddleglum]

Originally Posted by Nikkolas

Saruman is perhaps just not suited for combat, lacking the necessary courage or fortitude to expend himself and his essence in a life-threatening manner like Gandalf did.

Another factor may have been that Saruman had already begun following the path of Sauron and Morgoth before him - to whit, expending his native power to dominate and subjugate slaves, armies and (he desired) other peoples. While the total power may have been greater than Gandalf, it was more disbursed and, in a way, more vulnerable to being destroyed piecemeal.

Thus, when Morgoth's armies were destroyed in the War of Wrath, what remained (Morgoth, himself) hid in fear and was THEN easily captured and taken back to judgement.

And when Sauron's armies were destroyed in the Last Alliance, what remained (Sauron, himself) could be fought and defeated in direct, physical combat by an Elf and a Man (or by three Elves and two men).

Likewise, Saruman's power was being (probably he wasn't as far on this path as Sauron) disbursed in his slaves and to focus his power would have meant focusing all his armies and arming them to fight and burn a walking forest. But, by the time his armies came to grips with Huorns, many of them had already been killed by the Rohirrim and the rest were demoralized and ill prepared to battle walking trees.

Gandalf had never disbursed his native power and so was better equipped to face a Balrog (and even he failed to survive).

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Why did Saruman decide to move all his force into Rohan having lost his control over king Theoden?

Wormtongue didn't actually reach Orthanc with the news until it was too late: Saruman's army had been crushed at the Hornburg the night before, and Isengard was a steaming, flooded wreck.

OTOH, an unpublished time-scheme indicates that Saruman was notified by his bird-spies of the riding of several eoreds from Edoras westward (which, one might presume, he assumed like Ceorl did to be led by Eomer or some other marshal) .... and it was precisely in response to this that that night he launched the second assault on the Fords and the invasion of western Rohan. It seems his motivation, as I read it, was to overwhelm Elfhelm and Grimbold before they could be reinforced, and to destroy Rohan's army in detail. In this case we would have in miniature the situation with Aragorn/Palantir/Sauron: a move by the Allies provokes a hastily fatal couintermove by the Enemies.