Former President Jimmy Carter is one of the latest Obama allies to criticize the president's policies in the Middle East and his handling of the growing threat of the Islamic State.

In an interview with the Fort Worth, Tex. Star-Telegram published Tuesday, Carter said the Obama administration waited too long to respond to the notorious terrorist group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

"We let the Islamic state build up its money, capability and strength and weapons while it was still in Syria," said the Democratic ex-president. "Then when [ISIS] moved into Iraq, the Sunni Muslims didn't object to their being there and about a third of the territory in Iraq was abandoned."

The 39th U.S. president also cast doubt over President Barack Obama's promise not to defeat ISIS through the use of airstrikes without sending U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq.

"If we keep on working in Iraq and have some ground troops to follow up when we do our bombing, there is a possibility of success," he said.

The former Georgia governor also said the president has shifted his stance on Middle East policy several times and noted that Obama's former defense secretaries have publicly criticized him.

"It changes from time to time," he said referring to Obama's Middle East strategy.

"I noticed that two of his secretaries of defense, after they got out of office, were very critical of the lack of positive action on the part of the president," Carter said, in light of the memoirs published by former defense secretaries Robert Gates and Leon Panetta. They both expressed disdain towards Obama's foreign policy and management style in each of their books, reports Politico. Panetta's book was released earlier this week. Since then he has criticized Obama in several interviews.

On the other hand, former Republican President George W. Bush was reluctant to attack the president over his strategy to defeat ISIS.

"The President has to make the choices he thinks are important. I'm not going to second guess our president," said Bush during an interview with FOX News on Oct. 2, reports the New York Daily News. 

"I understand how tough the job is, and to have a former President bloviating and second guessing is, I don't think, good for the presidency or the country. He and his team will make the best informed decisions they can make," he added.

This is not the first time that Carter has spoken out against Obama. He has also objected to his use of drone strikes and surveillance programs.  Meanwhile in 2013, he stated that the implementation of Obama's signature health overhaul was questionable.