The U.S. government should reinvoke sanctions on Iran or "take them out of business in any of their other dealings" if American military bases in Iraq and Syria continue to be attacked by groups likely backed by Tehran, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax on Friday.

"Let's not pay them $6 billion for five people and then maybe we'll start to send a message that we're not going to take attacks on our bases," Holt said Friday during an appearance on Newsmax's "Carl Higbie FRONTLINE."

"We have to let our commanders defend themselves, and what we have to do now is start to project the strength that we lost in Afghanistan, a deterrable war in Ukraine, and now here we are with a war that should be confined to a country, could go regional, could go global," he added.

The deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East on Thursday said the U.S. won't hesitate to defend its troops in the region.

"On October 26, at President [Joe] Biden's direction, U.S. forces conducted precision, self-defense strikes on facilities in eastern Syria used and operated by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC, and its affiliates," Dana Stroul said during testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "We will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people."

Holt said the U.S. needs to make a cost imposition "on who actually attacked you, which is really Iran, or you decide to reassess whether your forces should even be there. ... and if they're not there for a good military reason, let's go back to the 241 Marines killed in 1983. They didn't have a mission. We have a war in search of a strategy, and we don't have a strategy, and we are imperiling our forces," he added.

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