Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?

Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?

A rhetorical question referring to an excessive amount of force that has been applied to achieve something minor, unimportant, or insignificant. The line is a quotation from Alexander Pope's poem "Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot." To "break upon a wheel" refers to a mode of torture, in which a victim has their bones broken while strapped to a large wheel. The government's use of drone strikes and artillery bombing on the town to wipe out a tiny faction of rebels is totally unjustifiable—who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?
See also: break, butterfly, upon, who
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • be breaking a butterfly on a wheel
  • break a butterfly on a wheel
  • make (something) out of nothing
  • make out of nothing
  • mere trifle
  • back street
  • be nothing to (one)
  • be/mean nothing to somebody
  • fig, not care/give/worth a