Here is an artists impression of the new Freedom Tower that will be built to replace the World Trade Centre that was destroyed by terrorists in 2001. A number of statements have been made, principally by politicians, that the replacement would demonstrate to the world that America had not been cowed by the terrorist attacts.

Sigmund Freud introduced us to the concept of projection. In interpersonal terms it means projecting your own failings onto the person you are interacting with. For all the protestations of Mr Bush that the terrorist have not won, in this new building you can see a projection of the terror that these individuals have inculcated into the American psyche.

Rather than a defiant statement that America will not be cowed by the acts of a few extremists, the Freedom Tower demonstrates the extent to which the politicians, at least, have lost faith in America's military to protect the country. It is exactly the kind of nightmare that government officials repeatedly asserted would never happen here: an impregnable tower braced against the outside world. The base is an enormous 20-story concrete pedestal more reminisent of a medieval keep than a statement of freedom and liberty.

The remainder is reinforced in a way that states quite unequivically that its designers have no faith in America's ability to prevent a future attack of a similar nature.

The irony is, of course, that America is littered with suitable targets if terrorists were to, once again, use aircraft as a weapon against the USA. It is also a statement of denial in as much as we know that the very nature of terrorism is that it is opportunistic and that the next attack will almost certainly not involve an aircraft against a building.

Geoge Orwell, in his novel 1984, introduced the concept of "double-think" a situation in which the name of things was the exact opposite of their true meaning. The classic "doublethink" example Orwell used was how "the Ministry of Peace concerns itself with War; the Ministry of Truth with Lies; the Ministry of Love with Torture; and the Ministry of Plenty with Starvation."

The new "Freedom Tower" has a sadly Orwellian feel about it.