Look, the American Civil War was fought over conflicting theories of sovereignty, with Lincoln arguing for the concept of indivisible sovereignty, and the Southern states arguing for a system of dual sovereignty. But the American Civil War was an intra-national conflict. Ultimately Lincoln prevailed and the U.S. eventually mended. Imagine, they were executed lying face down in the mud. I told you, it doesn't matter if it was the Pope himself.
War makes titles, status or celebrity quite irrelevant.
They were Communists. They were working against the common good. They had to be neutralized. No one pretends that war is pretty. There was no other way.