Uncle DaveO - Thanks for the corrections on the details - I'm not an exegetical scholar of the text. However, my point (which I apologize for leaving unclear) was in response to Little Hawk's comment ("Real Orcs (as in the book) were an actual race of beings, with their own society, their own notions of right and wrong (however twisted), and their own sense of group loyalty, common purpose, and so on. By their standards, they were "the good guys", fighting evil dwarves, elves, and men for dominion of the Earth. To depict them as rabidly mindless and totally brutish killing machines is a bit stupid, and it detracts from the realism and drama of the story. "

Basically, I was disagreeing. I don't think JRRT was leaning in the least toward any kind of cultural relativism re: the Orcs; they were indeed all bad, whatever the details of their genesis. I don't believe there's room to see them as "just like us only with a different cultural point of view." Of course, I'd be grateful for any substantive correction from the text.