It's a year or so since I read the last three books of Daniel in detail, so thanks for bringing them to my attention again!
Do you remember I played a game with poor old drummachine and took any old bit of literature and made it into a prophecy? Now that was just a game, but something similar goes on when we try to link prophecy to actual events. We overemphasise the hits, and subdue the misses. The last three chapters of Daniel have been interpreted as the fall or the Roman empire, the French revolution, fall of the Third Reich, and so on. Here are some examples of very varied expositions of Daniel 11 from the net, which illustrate the range of readings that can be supported by the text:
Forbiddenhttp://patmospapers.com/daniel/dan11end.htmhttp://www.angelfire.com/...use/brianshouse/howcanihelp.html http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/5210/daniel.htm
So reading Daniel 11 again, sure I find a lot of parallels with today's situation, but I find a lot of disconnects too.
In the wider view, I don't read prophecies as predictions in the manner of Old Moore's Almanac for two reasons:
Firstly, the problem I have already outlined, that its just too easy to make this fit the situation we choose, in the way we choose.
Secondly, the prophets spoke to
their generations directly, but with an eye which saw into continuing human needs which simply don't outdate. Our spiritual and moral needs are always desperately immediate. Jesus' own message was one of almost literally unbearable urgency - let the dead bury their own dead.
There is to my mind, and quite frankly, little moral or spiritual value in mere predictive games with texts. It would be like reading Orwell's 1984 and thinking that it's value related to how accurately it could be mapped to events of that year. Even if no social features turned out as Orwell described them, his fable would still be powerful and moving and significant.
Looking back to the Biblical prophets, this is what I find. Moral compulsion and spiritual immediacy, a call to action in the most urgent terms.
For those still inclined to read prophecies predictively in todays world this site discusses "12 Most Common Mistakes People Make
About Bible Prophecy and the Endtimes." Enjoy.
http://www.auburn.edu/~allenkc/12mostcommon.html