Yugoslavia. Or what is left of it - just Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo remain of the old country. (Go to map of the region). It is of course Serbia, and its president Slobodan Milosevic, that America and Europe, under the NATO umbrella, have been bombarding night and day.

Naturally, you have many questions. But the principal one has to be why are there so many armies involved? What is the point?

Again, it may have escaped your notice, depending on where you live (different countries have taken in different numbers: Germany has taken 10,000, the UK 160) but there are thousands of refugees streaming out of a section of southern Yugoslavia called Kosovo. Back once again comes the question why. And the answer? Ethnic cleansing.

You see, Kosovo wants independence from Yugoslavia, because most of its inhabitants are not Serbs / Yugoslavs but actually Albanians, a neighbouring country. President Milosevic, on the other hand, being a power-hungry totalitarian dictator and, in common with most Serbs, believing that he has automatic rights to Kosovo, wants to keep it. The Kosovars started a resistance group, and the situation generally degenerated to the point where Milosevic's police and army forces were visibly mistreating the Kosovars to extent such that the international community felt compelled to do something. Talks were held in Paris, but no compromises were reached, although the Kosovars signed up to the peace deal that was proposed. NATO had threatened air strikes and general 'punishment' if Serbia did not comply with its demands to stop mistreating Kosovo; and so air strikes began. The Serbs were naturally outraged, and decided that they would rid their country of these troublesome Albanians. Thus they started getting rid of them by going into houses, giving women and children two minutes to leave their homes and flee to safer lands, and shooting the men.

A vicious circle has developed. Originally, NATO intended only a relatively low-scale operation, to just nudge Milosevic into complying. However, they seriously underestimated his resolve. The ethnic cleansing being carried out by his forces both before and after the attacks started were proof of this; Milosevic will keep Kosovo at all costs. And the more Milosevic and his forces commit atrocities, the more NATO will bomb, under the supposed justification of the moral high ground. NATO are going to beat Milosevic; moreover, they are going to allow the fleeing Kosovars to return to their homes in peace and safety.

So they say. One or two snags though: how soon does NATO think the Kosovars will want to return home? Certainly, personally, I would not want to return to the place where my father and brothers had been brutally murdered by the police unless all threat of it ever happening again had been completely removed.

And this means ground forces, marching to Belgrade and deposing Milosevic. Snag: this is a very mountainous area and using ground forces could potentially prolong the war into months, maybe years rather than the weeks we are currently talking about.

To recap:

• The Kosovars want independence, but Milosevic does not grant it
• The Kosovars set up a resistance group / political party / terrorist group, and Milosevic's forces move in to start mistreating the Kosovar civilians
• The international community frowns upon this, and sets talks up, which fail due to Yugoslavia's lack of willingness to comply
• NATO begins air strikes, and Milosevic begins ethnic cleasing. Refugees stream across borders, swelling limited resources in neighbouring countries
• The more NATO bombs, the more Milosevic cleanses. Where will this stop?

Other problems include that this is not a UN-backed operation: it has not been endorsed by the UN Security Council. Russia in particular is very much against it, and we have in recent weeks seen a return to Cold War iciness in Russian-American relations. Also, it is becoming clear that air strikes will not persuade Milosevic to comply, meaning that ground forces might be necessary anyway.

So where do I stand? The official party line, from all main parties, is of support for the NATO actions.

But then of course it is: in the propaganda war, every country has to appear totally committed otherwise it will lose all credibility as an aggressive force in Yugoslavia.

Personally, I think that the air strikes were a good idea. Clearly the diplomacy method was not working with Milosevic; the parallels with Saddam Hussein are all too evident.

However, it is also far too clear that they were poorly-thought through. Planners obviously underestimated Milosevic's resolve; and now Americans talk of another Vietnam.

What can now be done, then? A difficult question indeed. Simply stopping would not do anything, as Milosevic would appear to have won the war, and the ethnic cleansing would still continue.

Increasing the intensity of air strikes would not help either. If anything, they have united Serbs behind their leader, and they now stand firm against the 'Western aggressors'.

What then? Well, it is pleasing to see that an oil blockade (of sorts) has been put into place, and this is the area which should be concentrated upon. Air strikes should have concentrated on only the most high-level military installations, and should be at a much lower scale than they are currently. Sanctions coupled with the credible threat of force worked, to an extent, in Iraq, and there is nothing to suggest a complete blockade would not completely cripple Serbia.

It is unfortunate that the war has gone on as long as it has. We are now entrenched in it, and it looks like being a long and arduous process to finally resolve.

Let us hope, for everyone's sake, that there are the people out there with the foresight and the vision to make a peace plan work.