Many of the worst genocides in history were by "civilized western countries". Just look at what happened in the Americas (many native ethnic groups are now entirely extinct), in the Congo, Ireland, British oppression and famines in India, and so on and so forth.

Nearly every genocide starts with "we're civilized. That means we're doing the right thing. Some casualties are unavoidable" When someone thinks like that, you know they're doing the wrong thing. You know you cannot trust them. You cannot reason with them because they refuse to see their actions objectively and have ceased to see others as equal to themselves.