Hi Matt,

I wanted to respond to your following comment:

“First, we know that the iron of the two legs of the Great Image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream represent Rome. This should help us identify the iron of the ten toes--it has to be the iron of Rome, otherwise the unity of the imagery comes undone. The clay suggests common humanity mingled with regal iron--democracy, the most recent (and some would say enlightened) development in human government.”

Your right that the imagery suggests Rome, but I want to point out that the Eastern leg of the Roman Empire included much of what is the Islamic world today.  In fact, the Eastern leg lasted longer than the Western leg, so an Islamic 10 nation confederacy is still a good possibility.
 

Tim Maier