No, you have to respond to the article that was actually written, not the nonexistent one that allows you to vent abundant outrage, no matter how much you dislike its author. Mr. Saunders' point ought to have been obvious to anyone who read the article. Neither the Scottish nor the Catalonian independence movements would have had as much momentum behind them as is now the case without the ill-advised behaviour of the governments of Spain and the United Kingdom. I do not see him contradicting the points you have made. You, on the other hand, do not even bother to actually respond to Mr. Saunders. It seems to me that he's not the one who fails "the criteria."