The majority of Greece's 9 million citizens are angry. Their anger is reflected in the country's nightly talk shows and the earnest snatches of conversation overheard on the streets of Athens. They are aghast at the war in Kosovo, at the wasteful loss of life in Yugoslavia, at the murderous actions of Nato. Their horror springs not simply from the fact that the conflict is occurring on their doorstep, against a fellow Orthodox people, but because they have been misinformed. Without a motive for the bombings, the consensus is that the United States is trying to rearrange the region's borders, enforcing and abusing its role as the world's policeman.
Propaganda is, after all, used to great effect by all governments.
In Greece the media are overwhelmingly pro-Serb. When ethnic Albanians are shown, it is invariably in the grim context of refugee camps that the Nato allies have failed to set up or run properly. It has been conveniently forgotten that Greece, as a member of Nato, joined the other 18 alliance members in agreeing to the bombings. The consensus is that Costas Simitis's government was pressured into doing so. The Greeks like to think that they have a history of siding with the weak.