Mark Twain has some delightful little bon mots, one of my favorites is:

"There are many humorous things in the world; among them, the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages."

It's a little inaccurate in that this belief had rather tragic consequences, but its nonetheless quite insightful.

The idea that the "enlightened" have a "moral duty" to "civilize" the world is basically an excuse for power or control of resources. Never in a million years would the US have been interested in the Philippines if they didn't think it was useful for completing the route to China (Pacific US -> Hawaii -> Philippines -> China).

Another point on the holocaust comparison is that the Theodore Roosevelt Administration worked actively to portray the Filipino's as the other. Which is much the idea of what Hitler did with the Jews. I'm not saying they were the first to do this (they aren't), but its a recurring theme throughout history.