Time magazine has selected some strange “men of the year.”

But the strangest of all, we submit, is Premier Mossadegh of Iran.

Cut it any way you please, Time couldn’t have selected a less forceful character in all the world. That’s because Mossadegh has blundered and stumbled and blubbered his way into a gosh-awful mess. He was pushed into nationalization of Iran’s oil industry. And having squeezed the British out, he didn’t have the faintest idea what to do. Nor has he today.

The wobbly Mossadegh has threatened to do business with the Russians while trying to wangle American aid. He hasn’t been able to get his oil industry going without outside technicians and he won’t employ them. Iranian workers struck at Christmas time for unpaid wages. He wants Western aid but wants to remain “neutral.” And having capitalized on a wave of extreme nationalism, he is having plenty of trouble riding the wave. Opposition leaders are trying to impeach him “for his disastrous policy,” and his fanatical followers threaten revolution if he is not sustained.

Time is somewhat confused. Mossadegh isn’t the “man of the year,” news-wise or statesmanshipwise, or tough-guywise or any other wise. He has more properly won the title “mess of the year.” And that, in these screwball times, is something to write home about.