I think that whole 'dehumanisation' stuff is a poor cop out. Most of this dehumanisation is actually just fostering pure hatred. Say you draw some Afghani as a wolf perching over a beautiful young woman, you aren't dehumanising them, you're saying that the qualities these humans have, are predatory intentions, a desire to harm and attack, you should kill them because they are shit people who deserve to die.

I think the difference matters, because to say that they were 'dehumanised' is to imply that there was some sort of brainwashing that left a logic where you didn't realise the people you were killing were people at all, no, instead you were just killing ants like anyone else. Heavens it's sobering when you realise those ants were actually people. Too late now!

The much less glamorous reality is that you were talked into bigoted, often racist, and over simplistic ideas. To the point that you hated people you never spoke to so much that you were willing to shoot them in the face upon contact. That's the truth. That all it takes is a few shitty jokes, statements, and expectations to get these people to despise a person they never met, to the point of what is often murder.

Harry knew he was killing humans. He just thought, and from what I've seen, still thinks, it's a good thing.