No, the quote is saying that if you dehumanize your enemy by portraying them as evil, you can get people to commit atrocities against them. That is, the chain o

No, the quote is saying that if you dehumanize your enemy by portraying them as evil, you can get people to commit atrocities against them. That is, the chain of causality is "portrayal as evil" => "commit atrocity", not "civilian death toll" => "not controversial". In fact I don't even see how you could read that into the quote.