Albright welcomes a public debate on the use of drones. | REUTERS Albright: Drones 'very effective'

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Tuesday defended the administration’s use of lethal drone strikes - calling them “very effective” in wiping out terrorists - while also welcoming a public debate about their use.

“I think it’s one of the most complicated and fascinating debates because one of the issues that actually came up during the Balkans in Kosovo — it was an air war and a lot of people said: ‘Well, that’s not moral, you should have boots on the ground,’” Albright said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”


( PHOTOS: Pro, con: Best quotes about drones)

“And at the time, I thought ‘Why should we get more people killed, why do you have to have boots on the ground when you can take care of the terrible things that are happening from the air?’ I do think that drones have been very effective in terms of getting rid of people that are bound and determined to attack us. But it has gotten to be a much more complicated issue and I think there should be a public discussion about the appropriateness of them.”

Debate over President Barack Obama’s use of targeted, covert drone strikes to kill terrorists in Yemen and Pakistan has erupted since the disclosure, last month, of a memo outlining the administration’s legal justification for killing an American citizen working with terrorist groups. The memo was used to justify the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, an Al Qaeda propagandist based in Yemen, in a drone strike.

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Madeleine Albright