GORDON Brown has been urged by a grieving family to "stand up to the mark" to protect Our Boys in Afghanistan.
Relatives of Taliban blast victim Paul McAleese blame the PM for his death - and for leaving British soldiers horrendously exposed to enemy bombers.
In a devastating letter sent to Downing Street, they revealed how Rifles serjeant Paul told them - just before he and a colleague died - that he and his comrades were sitting ducks.
Letter . . . for Prime Minister
It said: "I believe they were not killed by the Taliban or the insurgents: they were killed by whoever sent them out there knowing that they did not have the equipment necessary to do it with any degree of safety."
Paul - killed by a bomb while trying to reach a soldier hit by an earlier blast - blamed a chronic shortage of manpower, surveillance kit, vehicles and helicopters.
And the 29-year-old told how the situation was so dire that British troops were powerless to stop enemy fighters planting deadly devices just YARDS away from the gates of their base.
The letter to No10 was penned by new dad Paul's furious father-in-law Stephen Minter with the support of the soldier's widow Jo, mum Kim and sister Hayley.
Wedding day . . . Paul and Jo
In an echo of The Sun's "Don't you know there's a bloody war on?" campaign, RAF fireman Mr Minter told Mr Brown:
Because of you, I now have a 26-year-old daughter with no husband, and a five-month-old grandson with no father. As the Prime Minister, you must accept responsibility for the deployment of our troops. You have a duty to ensure they are provided with the best equipment available and the operational tactics that are used are sound and sensible.
Failing to ensure this will be seen as an act of neglect and should not be allowed to go unanswered. I plead with you to stand up to the mark. Protect our troops and stop the needless killings of our sons, husbands and fathers. 
The family revealed their anger on the day TWO more British soldiers died - one from Paul's ravaged unit, the 2nd Battalion, the Rifles. Like Paul, he was killed by a hidden "home-made" Taliban bomb, known as an Improvised Explosive Device, or IED.
The other victim, from the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, succumbed to wounds five days after being blown up in a Viking armoured vehicle - which cannot withstand IED blasts.
It brings the death toll of Britons in Afghanistan to 216 since 2001. Both men will be named today.
Mum Kim, 50, told The Sun: "Paul was going to tackle his superiors about these issues when he got back home.
"Don't get me wrong, he was a 100 per cent committed soldier. But he felt he could no longer keep quiet about the things he was seeing because of his strong sense of responsibility to the guys out there with him."
Anger . . . Stephen Minter
DAVID HARTLEY
Kim spent a precious last few days with Paul and his first child Charley when the serjeant - whose dad is famous SAS siege-buster John McAleese - took leave in July. Sister Hayley, 26, wept as she said: "I want Gordon Brown to listen.
"Enough is enough. If you can't bring them home, let's make them safer and allow them to do their job properly."
Paul's unit is charged with holding the Afghan town of Sangin, a notorious Taliban stamping ground.
The MoD admitted last month commanders had to move troops AWAY from Sangin to form the attacking force for Operation Panther's Claw elsewhere in Helmand province. That left Paul's battle group dangerously exposed.
IEDs have killed 13 and wounded more than 70 soldiers from the 600-strong 2 Rifles in the last four months. Seven deaths were from Paul's small outpost, Forward Operating Base Wishtan. Military chiefs have levelled blame at Mr Brown, saying he refused an urgent request from top brass for 2,000 reinforcements before the bitter summer tour started in April.
No10 last night confirmed Mr Brown had received the letter - and would reply soon. A spokesman said he was "determined to give the troops every support".
