The angel saying that the prophecy is of the last days, and the male goat coming from the west over the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground has always intrigued me
it's intriguing but Alexander the Great moved so speedily conquering especially Persia/Elam's one million man army this could be an idiom.
I have not studied all of Daniel in Hebrew and eschatolgy is fun but it divides a lot of Christians. I disagree on this but I hope we can pray that G!D reveals the true meaning
http://www.biblestudytools.com/daniel/8-5-compare.html
http://executableoutlines.com/dan/dan_08.htm
Correct me if I'm wrong but you tend toward this? maybe not exactly but similar?( see below):
http://www.theopenscroll.com/dan8.htm
This shows the hebrew and Paleo-Hebrew transliterations. All say "he touched not the ground" so no idiom, but what does this mean? Did the conquerer move speedily upon the earth as if their feet touched not the ground or literal as with airplanes? Does this exegesis fit the rest of the scripture? I'll refer to Acts 17:11 and study this more but to me it's a very broad leap to consider America in scripture( Just my opinion):
So we have been in the last days for the last 2328 years?
If you look, we(meaning the West)are the heirs of the Grecian Empire. Our form of government, laws, the architecture of our government buildings etc.
I personally am more aligned in my views with Elis Skofield’s prophecy book “The Hidden Beast II”, believing that the Dome of the Rock is the Abomination that bring desolation, and the muslim nations will be the origin of the Anti Christ, as if Islam itself is not totally Anti Christ (earn your way to paradise, no savior, Jesus did not die on the cross, no resurrection, and hatred of the Jews and G_d’s Word). I don't believe Skofield believe in an individual person called the Anti Christ. The Shiite beliefs about the Mahdi do line up with such a person.