First Edit: Why We Fight/Aging

[tectak]

Hello rich,
 If poetry can be described by genus and species this is Commitment veracity  verse and it is pretty difficult to write well. To make it work you need to commit the piece to a solid theme and stick with it. You have done well...but pretty well used up your thinking in the process. I would like to say that this is a nostalgic look back over mistakes made and knowledge gained...but that is where the thing breaks down. You shift from the ORIGINAL theme to a new angle in the very last couplet. I think this is a mistake.  It is never easy to crit veracity verse and even harder to be sure what IS veracity verse so as a rule we never assume that poetry tells a true story of the writer, only the character portrayed. Could I ask that you bear that in mind...so....line by line. 

Why We Fight

The easy way is dying first beforeGrammar...ain't it a pain. Lookee, the quintessence of this opener is "The easy way is dying first...keep it there by putting a comma after "first". Why? because if you do not then the point rambles in to the complexity of the NEXT point in the stanza. Give unto Caesar. So

The easy way is dying first, before
you tell your only love to come to bed;
to see her fading was far worse than war.
The final battle? Words you left unsaid.

OK. Apologies for the rewrite. Ignore...but that is how my head read it and I am the reader. The "far worse" is poor but only serves to amplify MY thinking. Your poem.
you tell your only love to come to bed
because to see her fade was worse than war,
the final battle words you left unsaid.

There isn't glory in becoming oldThere is no glory....verging on a cliche but verging is far enough away...comma at line end. Same reason as before.
instead there's pity from the callow ones
who smirk at every story you have told,This is a clean stanza with easily clicked together parts. No glory, pity, smirk...a Lego brick construction. Isolate it it from the conclusion with a semicolon, if only to give a pensive pause. A comma here is connective, a semi colon is conclusive. Nice thinking, nonetheless. 
too young to see you've handed them your guns.

You want to warn about the wasted dayscomma
of how they'll never love a better friendperiod
the minutes marching pass so many waysCapital on The. New point coming.
and dying after her the cruelest end.Awkwardly expressed. I can just see what you see but am not sure. I do believe it is the "and" word that weakens this couplet. I can see you were stuck with rhyming to "days" but the point is just not made.
Our minutes march, we choose the easy ways;
but dying after her...the cruelest end. 

Best I can do off the cuff but that's not what you want from me...it's simply my attempt to get meaning.
But all you'll do is sneer and ponder why
you fought so hard to only watch her die.This couplet is redundant, with or without my thinking. Frankly, it is not part of your overall commitment to the cause. If it is, then you need to clean it up because I have no idea who "you" is anymore. the ands and the buts have got me all boo(leanne)d out....logic escapes me.


Well...that's my take. I cannot say it is a failed effort because I wish I had thought of it first. Well done.
Best,
tectak