anonymous October 25th, 2009 09:30PM  
While a lot of Iron Maiden songs have the 'Thriller/Suspence/Horror' element to them, this one is actually a political song in disguise. The "Doomsday Clock" as they called it back in the cold war was the figurative clock counting down to midnight - nuclear war. "2 Minutes to Midnight" is about the cold war and the doomsday clock ("Hand that threatens doom"), and how everybody was so afraid of something that hasn't happened yet (kill the unborn in the womb).

anonymous October 30th, 2009 08:21PM  
It also sounds like there's a hint of someone sending their offspring off to war in the lines "we oil the jaws of the war machine and feed it with our babies".

anonymous February 19th, 2010 12:22PM  
It's about war and it's injustice in general...

"kill for gain or shoot to maim, we don't need a reason" - sign up to the army for whatever reason you like, we just want you to kill for us.

"the blind men shout 'let the creatures out and we'll show the unbelievers'" they don't believe what we tell them to so lets send our forces to attack them.

"napalm screams of human flames of a prime time belsen feast, yeah!" napalm was often used in the viatnamese war to burn innocent civilians alive and belsen was a concentration camp in germany... The fact it's a feast is because it's killing millions who are defenceless against the force killing them.

"as the reasons for the carnage cut their meat and lick the gravy, we oil the jaws of the war machine and feed it with our babies" instead of the political causes of the wars ficghting they live safely and comfortably whilst sending the normal people to fuel the war and those too old to fight have to see their children go to the slaughter.

"the body bags and little rags of children torn in two, and the jellied brains of those who remain that put the finger right on you!" Not all the people who died were part of the war, even sometimes children were targeted for instance land mines were hidden in children's toys so when tripped it could have torn them in two and reduced their clothes to little rags. The only survivors have been mentally scarred by the war and its horrors eg shell shock, so after the consequences of the war have been seen by the public eye the blame, or the finger, is pointed at the politicians who caused it.