WarChild

Here's the actual transcript:

So Bill, this is probably the first time you've ever been interviewed from Martyr Square in Beirut in the midst of a protest rally. I got to ask you, though, did George Bush get it right in the Middle East?

BILL MAHER, "REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER": That's what it's looking like these days. I mean, he certainly didn't get the details right, but he's a big picture guy. You know, they always say the world's divided into foxes and hedgehogs. I'm not sure which one is which, but one is the type who gets the big picture. Reagan was that kind of guy, has one or two big ideas.

I don't think we'll ever let George Bush live down lying to us to get us into this war or handling it in such an incompetent way. But there is no doubt, I think, at this point, that the bigger picture that he had, that you could actually transform that part of the world, or at least start to do it, was valid, when nobody else thought that was so.

COOPER: You don't hear many Democrats saying, You know what? It was a roll of the dice, and, you know, it seemed to work out.

MAHER: First of all, this is something that's going to, if it does work out, it's going to work out 20, 30, 50 years hence. It doesn't mean that we're safer in our lifetime. I think a lot of people are still concerned about the idea, Does this make us safer today? After all, that's the ball that we're supposed to be keeping our eye on.

And I don't know if it does.

COOPER: You don't think you're safer today because of elections in Iraq and Afghanistan and...

MAHER: Not today.

COOPER: ... what's going on here in Lebanon?

MAHER: Oh, certainly not today, no. We're talking way in the future. Yes, if democracy and freedom takes holds in the Middle East, and people there are less frustrated, and their, you know, the deep- seated problems start to go away.

I would also say that George Bush Jr.'s war in Iraq was a lot nobler than the one his father fought in Iraq.

COOPER: How do you mean?

MAHER: Well, I mean, the war that we fought in '91, the Gulf War, was really about protecting our oil supply and making sure that we still had cheap gasoline, and that the Iraqis didn't get into Saudi Arabia. That's a much more selfish motive, it seems, than what this war was really about, which apparently is now freedom.

COOPER: So what's the lesson? I mean, when you look at these pictures of these massive demonstrations, people, you know, I mean, people here never even talked about Syria. They were afraid to use the word "Syria." They're now out shouting, you know, Syria, get out. They're scrawling it on the statue behind me. When you see these pictures, I mean, what's the lesson you take away?

MAHER: Well, I think one of the lessons is that you have to think big. You have to imagine a world unlike the one you're living in. Cities like Beirut, cities like Baghdad, cities like Cairo, these were not backwaters for most of their history, they were sophisticated, cafe society, European-type cities. I know they called Beirut the Paris of the Middle East.

And if you just get the religious fanatics of their backs, you could actually have that again.

COOPER: Hey, Bill, thanks very much. Appreciate it. It's good to talk to you.

MAHER: OK. Stay safe. Wear your helmet.

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