Wow, this thread is pretty old and I fear no one will see my comments here, but its an interesting thread.
The subject of "Mystery Babylon" has been hotly debated in online forums for several years now with many different identity theories being tossed around. The NYC theory is a fairly recent theory, relatively speaking. It's been around for about 20 years or so, although the idea of America being Babylon was first tossed around by the late Dr. Frank Logsdon who wrote a very short book asking the question if maybe America was Mystery Babylon. His book "Is the USA In Bible Prophecy" was published in 1968.
Perhaps the very best book on the theory of identifying Babylon as America and not NYC is the 2 volume work of more than 600 pages, with extensive, scholastic research entitled: "America, The Babylon" by R.A. Coombes. Dr. Mark Hitchcock (Dallas Seminary professor) in his book "Is America in Bible Prophecy?" cites Coombes' work as the most definitive on the theory regarding America as the Babylon of prophecy. Hitchcock quotes Coombes' work extensively and does not refute the notion. Instead, Hitchcock ignores Coombes' salient points and proceeds to explain in the remaining 70 pages of his short book why he thinks Iraq is Mystery Babylon.
I should point out that Coombes' does have support from former seminary professor Dr. Frederick Fogle of Grace Theological Seminary who cites Coombes' work in his book "A Road Map to the Future." Fogle gives Coombes' research high marks.
Another Dallas Seminary professor, Dr. Dan Wallace has commented in the past on the possibility that perhaps Babylon is Washington, D.C. or America. Dr. Charles Ryrie - The Ryrie Study Bible - and retired professor from Dallas Seminary has privately commented that he has grave doubts about identifying Babylon as Rome, the RCC or Iraq. He stated that the America as Babylon theory seems highly intriguing as a possibility, but that he'd not done enough study or research to form an opinion. I don't know that he'd read Coombes' book or not.
Another good author on prophecy, Peter Goodgame in his book "Red Moon Rising" cites Coombes' research and draws similar conclusions as have a few other authors.
One thing I will say for myself - there is a great lack of scholarship by most prophecy commentators on the subject and a lot of faulty assumptions, starting with the tremendous errors of Alexander Hislop, who was either an idiot or a deliberate falsifier of information on ancient Babylon and connections to the RCC.
