system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[LOTR] How is the barren land of Mordor able to support its political power and massive army?

I’m an analyst in next-door Gondor. There’s no way that Mordor, a blasted land of barren rock cliffs and dry valleys where the sun is shrouded in volcanic ash should be as powerful as it is. As far as I can tell, Mordor lacks anything resembling trade and commerce, and is geographically isolated on three sides. Its population base is far smaller than other states as it lacks expanses of good farmland. It’s described as a “dead land of shadow” for crying out loud.

How in Middle Earth can Sauron muster 100,000 orcs from this weak demographic and economic base? How can such an force organize and assemble the logistics to move from through their blasted terrain, and how are they sustaining it from a dead land? I’m not sure how any “one ring,” “magic,” or the “will of Sauron” can overcome these physical difficulties.
gpt
Mordor is not all barren, that's just the part we see, in the vicinity of Mount Doom. There are parts with farms as well. Also, they have many allies. Most of the world is directly or indirectly under Sauron's control.