Is the US the beast of Revelation?

An interesting article in “Gods Politics’ blog titled, “Numbers That Mark the Beast”
The writer says,

The Bible isn’t concerned with empire. The Bible takes empire for granted. Humans gather, accumulate, and seek security for themselves and their group. The Bible’s intro (Genesis 1-11) culminates with humans securing a name for themselves. This is the Bible’s way of saying that people will build empires.
The biblical question isn’t if empires should arise but how to manage them once they have. Do they uphold justice or do they preserve privilege at the expense of the weak? Are they built on the backs of the poor or do they distribute blessings abroad?
When enough power is secured that sovereignty can’t be challenged and justice for the weak is denied, the Bible doesn’t call that empire. In biblical language, such a distortion of human community is called a Beast.
And the Bible has special numbers for Beasts.

The writer ask if the U.S. could be considered a Beast. He uses the $700 billion dollar bail out v $600 billion, global giving to Africa since 1960.

You can find the article at
http://www.sojo.net/blog/godspolitics/?p=4781&continue