Ben Barnes, the former lieutenant governor of Texas, took a letter from a member of the Iraq Veterans Against the War as thousands of marchers with them stopped near the intersection of Walnut and 7th streets.

With the Pepsi Center in sight, the marchers have stopped a few hundred feet from a wall of officers in riot gear.

The 50 or so military men and women in uniform stopped and gave speeches at around 5:30 p.m.

"The nightmare will not go away," said Iraq War veteran U.S. Army Sgt. Kristopher Goldsmith. "No amount of therapy will change the fact that I may have killed people I never knew."

The march resumed at 6:05.