Need some help

Congress does have power to declare war. Who's in a war? Now, I direct you to go read the war powers act in its entirety.

What specific provision of the War Powers Act authorized Trump’s strike on Soleimani without first consulting Congress?

It gives the executive branch power to act in such emergencies as imminent attacks on America, its persons or assets. It is necessary to protect the Nation where time is of essence. Trump did not declare war. He, and don't forgot, OUR HIGH RANKING Military made a counter attack on a threat revealed through military intelligence surveillance. This attack was made on Iraqi soil where our military was already approved by Congress to be. The attack was directed at a known Terrorist who was ID'ed as such by the OBAMA administration. This terrorist leader had already been responsible for over 600 American troops deaths in Iraq and countless Iraqis. This terrorist was verified by military intelligence to be in Iraq to make good on plans to attack our warships, our troops where the sleep and our diplomats. This was an emergency situation fully permitted by the War Powers Act. There are these provisions because if a President and Generals had to wait for Congress to approve such an attack, it would be too late to be successful. Does that make sense to you? Now go find something else wrong that Trump did. This, he did right and by the playbook! BTW we are not in a war with Iran, yet. This was a terrorist target approved by Obama and labeled as a terrorist by the UN.

Soleimani's been a top general in Iran for decades. Yes, our intelligence indicates he's been plotting attacks across the Middle East, as have others in Iran. He's not a good guy. But I'm not buying that he was suddenly an imminent national security emergency now.

The actions taken to defend the U.S. embassy were obviously justified as a national security emergency. No one is arguing about that. But: the Soleimani strike is a separate thing entirely and has been lot more controversial.

The 2002 AUMF you reference was directed against Iraq, specifically Saddam Hussein's government, not Iran. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorization_for_Use_of_Military_Force_Against_Iraq_Resolution_of_2002

If you're saying 18-year-old AUMFs can now be permissibly used under the War Powers Act to justify the POTUS unilaterally targeting high-ranking officials of countries that the AUMF is not even directed against, then I'd argue you have stretched the War Powers Act beyond all reasonable interpretation.

Same thing with the "too late to be successful" argument. If POTUS can execute anyone as a national security emergency on the basis that they might disappear later, then Congress may never to be informed of anything.

Your interpretation allows POTUS to target a potentially huge and undefined class of Iranian officials and generals without first seeking input from Congress.

{{psssssssst, you know you coordinated the routing and ousting of ISIL from Iraq utilizing Shiite militia, Kurdish Peshmerga, and Iranian soldiers who also trained and armed them that Trump took credit for? Yup, that's your 'bad guy' that no on here heard of in any capacity prior to this, just a lil' FYI}}

We are at war with Iran at least 3 times over: war on terror, war on Drugs, and War on poverty.