Of course they say they were justified. Obsession with the state at its finest. Ayn Rand said it wonderfully:
“The political expression of altruism is collectivism or statism, which holds that mans life and work belong to the stateto society, to the group, the gang, the race, the nationand that the state may dispose of him in any way it pleases for the sake of whatever it deems to be its own tribal, collective good.”